Pampered by my Billionaire CEO Husband

"I..." Natalie hesitated for a moment, not sure of what to say, letting silence enveloped them for what seemed like an eternity before she finally said something. "I just had a lot on my mind. And no, I’m not doing that, I won’t do that, I promise," she assured but Evelyn was barely even listening at this point in time.

"Your promises mean nothing to me," Evelyn stated curtly, her voice cold and icy. "I know you want Aurelia back, that is why you went to find her," she sneered with a disdainful scorn.

"Eve, it’s not like that."

"Save it," Evelyn commented crudely. "I get it, you want your real daughter back. I am just a fake. I don’t deserve to be here. You must be resenting me for keeping you away from your real daughter."

"Don’t say that, that’s not true. You are also my daughter."

"Oh, but it is true. I can never be the real daughter of the Lloyd family no matter how hard I try. And you will forever be thinking about her. Right?"

Natalie lowered her gaze as she let out a breath and a defeated look was plastered across her face.

"You don’t have to say anything," Evelyn continued and there was a brief pause. "Does dad know about this?" She asked as Natalie lifted her head this time and their gazes matched.

She watched as her mother shook her head, muttering under her breath. "No."

The corners of her lips curved upwards into a slight smirk, a bitter look was etched onto her face.

"Good," she muttered to herself. "Keep it that way," she demanded through gritted teeth, her tone carrying a sharp edge to it, piercing through the tension that was brewing in the air between them.

A frown crept onto Natalie’s face, resting between her brows as she looked at her daughter.

"You can’t hide this forever, Eve. It’s all over the news, he is going to find out and he will come questioning us before you know it."

Evelyn let out a loud scoff as she rolled her eyes.

"Those are just gossip news. You know daddy doesn’t believe in those. I doubt he even reads those," she snarled, her voice thick with poison. "Who do you think he is going to trust? Random news articles or his own daughter?" She questioned with a raised brow, smugness radiating from every inch of her skin.

A cold chuckle emerged from Natalie’s parted lips as she stared at her daughter with disbelief written all over her face. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. In her eyes, Evelyn had always been this sweet innocent girl who couldn’t even hurt a fly even if she tried to. But it was at this moment when realisation finally dawned upon her and she understood how blinded she was by everything.

As the atmosphere remained tense, the door came swinging wide open and the sound of the back of the door hitting against the wall echoed in the room. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

The both of them whipped their heads around in an instant and found themselves looking at James who was standing by the door with a frown etched onto his face.

"Jennifer told me the two of you were in the room," he announced then turned to fix his attention on his wife who was already looking at him with wide eyes. "Natalie, we need to talk... in private."

Before she could even utter another word, he reached out to wrap his fingers around her, grabbing her by her and pulling her away and out of the room. They stood by the corridor, a couple of steps away from Evelyn’s room.

"James, what are you–"

He cut her off before all the words could leave her lips. He pulled out his phone and flashed the same few articles that Evelyn had shown her mother earlier.

"Explain this," he demanded as his face darkened visibly. "Why is everyone saying that Aurelia is your daughter and why did you go and meet her for no reason at all?!" He raised his voice slightly as anger swirled in the depths of his eyes. "Do you know that everyone is questioning me?"

Her heart was pounding loudly against her chest, threatening to burst out at any second now as she kept her gaze steady. She contemplated telling him the truth but quickly held her tongue. Somehow she couldn’t bring herself to do it yet, Evelyn’s threats didn’t scare her, it was her own kindness and love for her that stopped her instead.

"James, you should know better than to believe these articles."

"Fine, sure. But how are you going to explain why you are hugging Aurelia?" He hissed. "You know how she treats Evelyn, how could you still be so close with her? I don’t get it."

"Of course you don’t," she said and silence stretched between them for a brief moment before she spoke up once again. "But you will one day."

The frown on his face deepened, forming creases on his forehead as he looked at her with a puzzled look plastered across his face. "What are you talking about?" He questioned, his voice laced with a hint of confusion.

"I’m just saying..." Her voice trailed off but the words barely left the tip of her tongue when Evelyn came rushing out of her room to place her hands on her mother’s arm. Seemingly dashing out at the room to stop her from spilling the truth, little did she know that her daughter had been eavesdropping the entire time, peeking out through the tiny gap of her door.

"Dad..." Evelyn began, whining and pouting as she looked up at her father with wide doe eyes, batting her lashes at him innocently. She knew she needed to get her father on her side no matter what, and she will do whatever it takes to gain his trust. Or on the flip side, she could make her father despise her own mother. "Don’t question mum, I’m sure she was just..."

"Eve, there’s no need to speak up for your mother. Please go back to your room, we need to talk things out and settle things," he said and his gaze softened this time despite his stern voice. "I don’t want you to worry about anything, okay? Your health is the most important right now."

"Evelyn, listen to your –"

"Ahh!" A scream erupted from Evelyn’s lips as she fell onto the ground with a loud yelp. She grimaced in pain and her face was contorted into a pained expression as she tried to stand up.

James quickly rushed to her side to help her up while Natalie looked at her with wide eyes, disbelief and shock swimming in her dark eyes. "Eve, are you okay?" She asked with genuine concern but was only met with accusation.

Evelyn looked up to meet her mother’s eyes with tears gleaming in her eyes.

"Mum..." She said with quivering lips. "Why did you push me?"

Natalie’s eyes grew even wider this time. "What? I didn’t push you, I –"

"Natalie, are you serious? Did you purposefully push our daughter?" He asked, his voice dripping with accusation. "Have you lost your mind?!" He spat the words out like they were poison in his mouth.

""I... I..." she stuttered, dumbfounded. "I didn’t do anything, it was an accident."

"Mum... I know you have been stressed ever since I was diagnosed with cancer, I don’t blame you," Evelyn said with a pitiful look plastered across her face. "I’m sorry I accused you of pushing me, it’s probably just an accident like you said."

"Don’t apologise to her," he demanded, his voice shaking with anger as he glared at his wife and his eyes were narrowed into thin slits. "Eve, go inside your room. Now. I will need to talk to your mother."

Evelyn reached out to grab onto her father’s arm. "Daddy, don’t yell at mum, I’m sure it was an accident."

He let out a sigh. "I know, just go back to your room, call us if you need anything."

With that said, she turned around and the corners of her lips were twisted upwards into a knowing smirk.

***

First Person POV

"You have been staring at that for a long time now," Xavier pointed out as he sat down next to on the bed.

I let out a breath as I kept my eyes fixated on the piece of paper I was holding.

"You know staring at it isn’t going to change the results right?" He teased in an attempt to lighten the mood.

"She told me she was going to give me time to process everything and this is me processing everything," I mumbled under my breath as my mind buzzed with thoughts and questions swirling inside my head like a damn hurricane. "You know, I thought I would be happy to find my biological mother, making me feel better about all the time Jennifer took Evelyn’s side. Everything finally made sense now but I feel... I don’t know... conflicted," I admitted.

I looked up to meet his eyes. "Is my life going to change? What is going to happen? I know Evelyn will not let this slide."

He leaned in and wrapped his arms around my shoulders. "It’s alright, just take all the time you need," he assured with a slight smile as he planted a kiss on my temple. "No matter what happens, I’m always here by your side."

I smiled. "I know."