Snatched a Billionaire to Be My Husband – Episode 62
The merger would restore Byron’s reputation as the most formidable dealmaker in the country. It would also move him between London, Singapore, and Los Angeles while Charlotte was still learning to sit without support.
He showed Cora the offer before discussing it with the board. Transparency prevented secrecy, but it did not answer whether ambition and family could coexist without one becoming the other’s sacrifice.
Cora refused to tell him to decline. She had fought too hard against men deciding her future to decide his in the name of love. She asked what part of the work he genuinely wanted and what part merely reassured him that he remained indispensable.
Byron admitted the scale attracted him. So did the old comfort of entering a room where every problem could be measured in money. Fatherhood offered no such control, which made the merger tempting in ways he disliked admitting.
They argued after he suggested moving the family abroad temporarily. Cora heard another powerful man assuming everyone else’s life could reorganize around his opportunity. Byron heard rejection of a professional identity he had spent decades building.
Neither resolved the argument before their anniversary dinner. They sat at Nocturne beneath the same city lights that framed their beginning, irritated enough to abandon polite celebration.
Cora reminded him that she once feared his power would consume her choices. Byron reminded her that he had changed his company, schedule, and home without considering those changes losses until she treated this desire as evidence of regression.
The truth lay between them. He had earned the right to want difficult work. She had earned the right not to have her life relocated by assumption. Partnership required a third solution rather than one person’s surrender.
Byron proposed leading only the negotiation phase from Los Angeles, with regional executives holding authority abroad. The client initially rejected the structure because it wanted his name as much as his expertise.
He declined the original offer. Hours later, the client returned willing to consider his model. The deal had not required his family’s displacement; it had required him to stop presenting personal sacrifice as the price of excellence.
Cora acknowledged that she had reacted to Roland’s shadow as much as Byron’s proposal. Not every request from a powerful man was a command, and not every compromise threatened her independence.
They returned to their dinner after midnight. Carter had saved the cake, though he claimed a large missing slice resulted from a security inspection.
Byron gave Cora no jewelry. He presented the deed to the smaller house with both their names and a blank page labeled Decisions We Have Not Made Yet.
Cora added three lines: future children, international work, and where Charlotte would attend school. Beside each, she wrote Together. It was not romantic in the traditional sense, which made Byron smile.
Her gift to him was a framed receipt from the hospital payment that began their investigation. The false Lane obligation had once represented manipulation; beneath it she placed the final restitution notice showing every victim repaid.
They danced alone after the staff left. Cora rested her head against the man she had once chosen as revenge and now chose with full knowledge of his limitations.
At home, Charlotte woke before they reached the bedroom. Byron carried her to the garden window while Cora removed her shoes, their anniversary ending with a bottle and a diaper instead of champagne.
The next morning, an invitation arrived for the final dissolution hearing of the guardian trust. Once Cora signed, every remaining Vale restriction would end. The date fell exactly one year after the party where Easton took back his ring.