Chapter 83 #1: Sentiment Is A Luxury
The bathroom light is too bright for this hour, but I leave it on anyway because I need to see every line of myself before I walk out of this house.
I tug my blouse into place and glance at the clock on the wall. We are already cutting it close.
“Nora,” a voice calls from the kitchen, amused but edged with urgency. “If you’re planning on seducing the mirror, do it later. Calder Investments is not known for its patience.”
“I’m coming,” I call back, looping my earrings through my ears. “I have to look perfect. Some of us have standards.”
“Some of us have investors who could pull out without warning,” he fires back. “And before you say anything... yes, I’m aware that was a terrible choice of words.”
I laugh despite myself. “You’re impossible.”
A small voice pipes up from the hallway, high and insistent. “Mommy!"
I soften instantly. “Baby, I’ll be there in a minute.”
“You said that already,” my daughter says, dramatic in the way only children can be. “You promised to read me the dragon book before you leave for work.”
“I did not promise,” I say. “I said I’d try.”
“That’s the same thing,” she replies, clearly winning this argument in her head.
I sigh. “I’ll be there in just a minute, Lucy. Let Mommy finish getting ready for the scary investors, okay?”
Lucia giggles, the sound bright and free, then spins around. “Daddy! Mommy called them scary investors!”
I finish tying my hair into a low knot and take a breath, meeting my own gaze in the mirror. My lipstick is perfect. My eyes are bright. I look like a woman who knows exactly where she is going and why.
The door opens behind me and warm hands settle on my waist.
“You look like trouble,” he says, pressing a kiss to my cheek. “And not the good kind.”
I smile, leaning back into him. “You married trouble, remember? You knew the risks.”
“I married brilliance,” he says. “The trouble came as a bonus.”
His hands rest lightly at my waist. “McAllister’s bringing the full board. All of them. This is the deal we’ve been after for eighteen months.”
“I know.” I turn in his arms, smoothing the lapels of his suit jacket, feeling the steady beat of his heart under my palm. “I’ve gone over the projections a dozen times. We’ve got this.”
He looks at me a moment longer than necessary. “I never doubted you.”
“Liar.” I laugh quietly.
I turn slightly so I can see him properly in the mirror. He’s already in his suit, jacket slung over his shoulder, tie loosened like he’s been pacing while waiting for me. There is a confidence to him that fills space without asking permission. The kind men like him learn early, polish over time, and wield without apology.
My husband, the elusive billionaire... Vincent Calder.
I know... I know... I can practically hear you sucking in a breath right now. I can feel the questions forming, stacking one on top of the other, demanding answers I haven’t given yet.
Who is he to me? How did this happen? Where does David fit into all of this?
Trust me, I’m getting there.
“Five minutes,” I say to him, lifting a finger. “I need to read a bedtime story.”
He sighs dramatically. “One page.”
“Two,” I counter.
“Deal.”
He squeezes my waist once more and steps back, heading toward the door. “Don’t take too long. These investors are very excited about you. I may have oversold you a little.”
“I’ve never heard you undersell anything,” I say.
He grins. “Fair.”
He leaves and I take one last look at myself before switching off the light. The house hums with the low, familiar sounds of evening. Soft music from the kitchen. The faint clink of a glass. The muted rush of the city beyond the windows.
I walk down the hall and into my daughter’s room, already smiling as I reach for the book on her nightstand.
“Just one chapter,” I tell her as I sit on the edge of the bed.
She beams like she’s just won a war.
I read quickly but theatrically, doing the voices even though I’m supposed to be in a hurry. Lucy listens with her whole body, eyes wide, fingers curled into the blanket. When I close the book, she’s already halfway asleep.
“Goodnight, my love,” I whisper, kissing her forehead.
“Good luck, mummy.” she murmurs.
I feel my heart melt. “Thank you, baby.”
When I leave her room and head back toward the kitchen, my phone buzzes in my hand. A calendar reminder flashes across the screen.
《Important meeting. Do not be late.》
I take a deep breath, hold it for three seconds, then exhale and grab my coat, heading out the door.
This is my life now. But it didn’t start here.
It began five years ago...
I was sitting at a long table draped in white linen, crystal glasses catching the light of a chandelier that probably cost more than my first apartment. The room smelled like expensive perfume and quiet judgment.
Elaine Reid sat across from me, perfectly composed, her fake smile fooling no one.
“So,” she said, stirring her drink though she hadn’t taken a sip. “Three years of marriage already. How wonderful!”
David shifted beside me. I felt it immediately, the subtle tension in his body, the way his hand tightened around mine under the table.
“Yes,” I said. “How time flies.”
“It really does, doesn't it?” Elaine agreed. “Especially when one is waiting.”
I knew where this was going. I’d known since dessert was cleared. Waiting for an heir. Waiting for proof that I was worth the ring on my finger.
Waiting for a child.
David spoke before I could. “Mother... don't.”
She turned to him, brows lifting. “What?”
“This is not dinner conversation.”
She smiled sweetly. “I’m simply concerned, darling. Reid Global isn’t exactly a small operation. Someone has to take over one day.”
David leaned slightly in front of me, his voice low. “That’s enough, mother. This is neither the time nor place.”
Elaine raised one eyebrow. “And when will it be the time, David? When you’re sixty-five with no successor? When the board starts talking about replacements? When the empire you’ve worked for looks for someone younger, more ambitious, more… fertile?”
I opened my mouth to answer, ready to cut her down the way I used to make grown men flinch, but again, David spoke first, his tone icy enough to chill the champagne.
“Nora is my wife. She’s the only person I trust with everything I’ve built. If and when we decide to have children, that’s our decision. Not yours. Not the board’s. Not the society pages. Ours.”
“Of course, honey.” Elaine’s eyes flicked back to me. “Nora, dear. I don’t mean to pressure you. These things happen when they’re meant to.”
I swallowed and smiled. “That's right, Elaine. Let’s hope we never forget that.”
“Hm.” Then once more turning to David, she said, “Sentiment is the one luxury you cannot afford, David.”
With that, she turned away, dismissing us with a small lift of her shoulder. The conversation was over as far as she was concerned.
David guided me through the French doors onto the terrace, the November air cold against my bare arms.
He pulled me against his chest, arms tight. “I’m really sorry about that."
“Don’t be." I rested my forehead against his jacket. “It’s not like she’s wrong.”
“She is wrong.” His voice was rough. “About every word.”
I said nothing.
David leaned closer to me, his voice low. “You okay?”
I nodded. “I’m fine.”
And I was, mostly. Except for the strange wave of nausea that hit me halfway through the next course. Except for the fatigue that had been clinging to me for days. Except for the dull ache in my lower back that I kept dismissing as bad posture.
I told myself it was stress – the constant travel, the boardroom fights, Elaine’s voice playing on repeat in my head. I told myself a lot of things, too scared to let myself hope.
Later that night, after the gala, after the polite goodbyes and the quiet ride home in the Maybach, I went into the guest bathroom while David was on a late call with Tokyo. I sat on the edge of the tub staring at a small white stick in my hand, my heart pounding so loudly I was sure David could hear it through the door, and I took the test.
I set the timer on my phone.
I waited.
I stared at the result window in pure disbelief. After all the fertility treatments. The agonizing IVF sessions. The endless hoping and praying.
The second line appeared almost immediately.
Positive.