Page 304 of The Billionaires

When the cabbie asks where to go, I tell him to take me home.

“And where is home?” he asks, his voice a mixture of kindness and exasperation.

“Just take me to the Staten Island Ferry,” I say.

After I take the ferry, I’ll take a bus since I don’t have millions in my bank account yet, and now I probably never will.

But I don’t care about the money. I’d give it all to undo this clusterfuck of a day. And here is what bothers me the most about this whole thing.

The person I desperately want to discuss all this with is Adrian.

CHAPTER 37

ADRIAN

I watch Jane leave the courtroom and realize I fucked up. For a moment, I considered that she might’ve betrayed me, and she read that on my face.

After that moment passed, I knew she couldn’t have done it, no matter how mad she was about my earlier actions. Alas, now it’s too late. I should run after her, but I can’t. Piper needs me here, at the hearing.

In fact, I’ve already missed something Bob was saying, though I think the gist of it was, “That kind of information could only be obtained by illegal hacking, which doesn’t speak well for Sydney’s character.”

“That doesn’t make his marriage real,” someone counters—though their actual words have more legalese.

I leap to my feet, propelled by an uncontrollable impulse. “It doesn’t matter how my relationship with Jane started. As we got to know each other, I genuinely fell in love with her, and now I plan to keep her as my wife forever.”

As the words leave my mouth, I realize that it’s the truth.

The reason her silent treatment hurts so much is because I love Jane and I hate how unhappy she seems.

Well, no more. I’m going to find a way to fix things between us.

Out of the corner of my eye, I notice Sydney going pale. I guess she believes my declaration, and it must rid her of all the last-ditch fantasies she’s been harboring, the ones where the two of us magically end up together despite everything.

“If my marriage is the deciding factor for custody,” I continue, “I’m willing to sign a document that stating that if Jane and I were ever to get divorced, Sydney would?—”

“My client is just joking,” Bob interjects.

It’s a good thing he stopped me. What if Jane?—

“It doesn’t matter anyway,” the judge says. She faces Sydney’s side. “Is there more?”

They tell her there isn’t.

“In that case, I’m going to make the ruling,” she says.

Heart hammering in my throat, I listen so intently I can hear someone’s stomach rumble in the first row. Then, as the judge speaks, a feeling of weightlessness overcomes my body, not unlike how I feel when inside a sensory deprivation chamber. I’m also so happy about what I hear that I want to dance a jig because, when stripped of all the legalese, the ruling is exactly what I’ve worked so hard to accomplish—fifty/fifty custody.

As in, I can be fully present in Piper’s life.

A wide grin spreads over my face, and I almost hug Bob, but then I downgrade the gesture to a handshake. I’ve never been so elated. An actual warmth radiates through my body.

I turn to kiss Jane in my excitement, only to remember that she left.

Fuck.

The happiness dims.

How could I have forgotten? Jane left, and she’s even more upset with me than before.

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