Chapter 1Resigning From the Billionaire

I had been Adrian Vance’s executive assistant for three years when he got engaged.

His fiancée made him fire all his female staff who worked in close proximity to him.

I was on that list.

As compensation, Adrian offered to set me up with his older brother.

"He’s richer than me, better at everything that matters, and he just has one kid," Adrian told me.

"If you don't mind a ready-made family, want me to set it up?"

I didn't mind.

Because I was the one who gave birth to that kid.

* * *

Julian Sterling and I had a past.

It was a secret. Adrian had no idea.

If he did, he wouldn’t be so clueless as to treat me like his personal errand girl.

I was twenty-two when I was with Julian.

Fresh out of college, green, and clumsy.

I met him at one of Sterling Group's port facilities. I thought he was just another struggling job seeker like me, fresh out of a failed interview.

He looked a mess that day.

Suit rumpled, face smudged with dust.

He was sitting on a curb, eating a cheap takeout box.

A thick stack of documents was sitting next to him.

He looked completely down on his luck.

I had just been rejected for a position and was running on pure emotional impulse.

I had bought two massive, double-meat pork belly bowls from a food truck, and I handed him one.

"Here, eat this," I said.

"Yours looks too pathetic. It won't fill you up."

His box was mostly just rice and withered greens.

I sat down five feet away from him, feeling sorry for myself.

I was busy fantasizing about how miserable my life would be if I didn't find a job soon.

Would I end up sitting on a curb, getting fed by strangers?

I was so lost in my pity party that I missed Julian’s expression.

It went from bewildered to incredulous, and finally, to genuinely amused.

Over that lunch, we briefly talked about our "struggles."

We exchanged names.

It was the beginning of a massive mistake.

I had assumed his background was as ordinary as mine.

And Julian was perfectly happy to play the role of an ordinary guy.

I started running into him everywhere after that.

Every time, it felt like a coincidence.

Even when he asked me out, I thought it was fate.

Until the cliché, melodramatic plot twist happened.

I was at a high-end luxury mall, picking out a corporate gift for a major client on behalf of my boss.

I saw Julian. He was dropping thousands without blinking.

Hands casually in his pockets.

Shoulders leaning back with lazy arrogance.

Tapping his foot.

He looked impatient, but he was still forcing himself to play along, offering opinions to the girl next to him.

When she finally picked a style she liked, he gave a relieved wave to the clerk to put it on his tab.

Only the night before, he had been wrapped around me in my tiny rented apartment, asking me to give him a head rub.

Listening to me complain about Adrian’s demands and work stress.

I thought about it for a long time.

I weighed my options: continue the charade of our relationship, or demand a massive payoff to disappear.

I didn't choose either.

I chose the stupidest option.

I confronted him, and I didn't ask for a dime.

He wasn't surprised.

He admitted who he was, cleanly and efficiently.

Then he opened his mouth and said he wanted to take me home to meet his family.

To his estate.

That place was worth more than I could earn in fifty lifetimes.

I saw tons of files in his study.

As it turned out, he took his role as the Sterling heir very seriously.

That day we met at the port, he wasn't looking for a job. He was inspecting a Sterling key project that was having major issues.

In the blistering summer heat, he had gone to the site with a team of engineers, blueprints in hand.

He was there to personally diagnose the problem.

Change plans, coordinate resources.

A recording secretary had written that thick stack of "documents"—meeting minutes.

Nobody expected the CEO to actually show up on the dusty ground.

So, nobody had arranged a fancy lunch for him.

When lunchtime hit, he just grabbed the minutes, sat on the curb, and reviewed them while eating a generic lunchbox, waiting for a final report from a subordinate.

And that’s when I ran into him.

I could have kicked myself for being so blind.

How did I not notice the price tag on his watch, or how perfectly tailored his suit was?

He asked me if we absolutely had to break up.

He said loving someone was all the same; the most important things were shared interests and assets.

I was twenty-four, far too young.

Young enough to believe that love couldn't tolerate a grain of sand, let alone a lie that big.

"It’s not the same," I told him.

"We are not the same."

I didn't cry, and I didn't make a grand exit.

I got in a cab and left, feeling as numb as someone who had just been laid off.

But life never goes as planned.

Only a month later, I realized just how important money was.

A month later, my period didn't show up.

I was pregnant.

And my company was doing a massive round of layoffs, targeting pregnant women specifically.

The boss made it clear:

Pay them the severance and get them out.

Let those pregnant women go home and tend to their babies.

If this kept up, he wouldn't be hiring women anymore.

Before my belly started to show, I immediately pledged my undying loyalty to the company.

I promised I wouldn't let my "health issues" affect the project.

Then, I requested three days off for the procedure.

The boss was satisfied and held me up as a model employee.

Looking in the mirror, I felt like a corporate slave, not a human being.

My colleagues whispered behind my back, and I had no defense.

I scheduled the abortion and went to the hospital.

But I was stopped in the parking lot by Julian’s security team.

Julian was out of the country.

He took a private jet back that night, landing in six hours.

He told me to keep the baby.

The terms he offered were generous.

I agreed.

To prevent developing a maternal bond, I never looked at the baby girl once after she was born.

Julian took her away and named her Cora.

Cora, the maiden. A precious pearl.

I figured Julian must love her.

Which meant I didn't need to worry about her.

I left Seattle and moved south to Atlanta.