Page 118 of Forever with the CEO

“Sure, wife.”

My brothers were right. Even though I’d been adamant that after she got custody, things would go back to the way they were,there was no way I would want to miss any of this. I knew I could visit them all the time, of course, but it wasn’t the same. I didn’t want to miss out on moments like this.

Could I just be Allison’s boyfriend once this was over? I didn’t think so.

I wanted more.

Chapter Thirty

Allison

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Some days I could barely believe how much life had changed in the past few months. I felt like an entirely different person. I’d accepted a while ago that it was time to leave that version of me in the past. But I liked the present version, and I was immensely happy.

Which was why, as I drove into work on a gloomy Thursday morning, I was still singing at the top of my lungs. I simply wouldn’t let anything drag me down.

So when Hugo called, I grimaced.Crap.Things couldn’t work out perfectly, could they? I hadn’t heard from him in a while, and he’d insisted that there was no point asking him for updates and that he’d call when he knew something.

“Hi,” I said as soon as the call connected on Bluetooth.

“Morning, Allison.”

“Any news?” I asked, but it was redundant. He wouldn’t have called otherwise.

“Yes, the best of news.”

I gasped. “Oh my God.”

“They withdrew the custody plea.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means they are no longer seeking custody.”

“I can’t believe it. They just gave up? Just like that?”Why would they do that?

“Not exactly. I found out that they weren’t doing as well financially as they were pretending. Selling Jim and Nora’s house would have gotten them out of the pinch they were in.”

“Wait... they have money troubles?” I was absolutely shocked. Hugo had mentioned in the beginning that they were probably interested in the house, but I’d never believed it.

“Yep. And whoever gets the twins gets the house, remember?”

I blinked rapidly. “But that’s not how it works. The house belongs to the twins.”

“There are legal and slightly illegal ways to get around that if they wanted, and believe me, they wanted to.”

“And they simply pulled back their request because you found out they have financial issues?”

“I made it clear to them that everyone would find out about their money problems and that they only wanted to get the twins in order to sell the house. Turns out, Bob and Sophie care about one thing most: their reputation. They agreed not to seek custody if we don’t mention this to anyone.”

“Thank you so much for taking care of all that. I’m speechless.”

I couldn’t believe anyone would be so callous. In all this time, they’d never once asked about their grandkids. I’d started to feel guilty, thinking that maybe because we were engaged in the custody battle, they simply wanted to ignore me and minimize interactions. But now I was starting to accept that wasn’t the case.

“There is one small technicality, though. I need your signature on an affidavit that states that you gladly assume the custody.”

“Of course. I thought I’d done that already.”

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