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CH 111
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Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 112:
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire . Chapter 112: . Nathaniel laughs like he thinks that Isabella’s very funny. “Spend the night with me and whatever he’s paying you, I’ll double it. Tell me to fuck off again, and everyone you’ve ever known will know exactly what you’ve been doing this whole time, slutting around places too good for you like a bitch in heat. Better yet—” Nathaniel leans in close; he’s wearing too much cologne, “Does Moneybags know about you? I bet he doesn’t. Maybe he should.” The rage, when it comes, is welcomed. Isabella whips around like a boomerang and shoves at Nathaniel hard with both hands, sending him crashing backwards into a waiter (and said waiter’s tray of full champagne flutes), and down to the ground in a shower of booze and glass. There’s no grace or dignity in the way the man goes down, and Isabella enjoys how it feels to be able to loom over him, breathing hard and absolutely furious. The room is very, very quiet. “Shut up,” Isabella grits o
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 113
Ditch the Ex. Ditch the Billionaire .Chapter 113:.Isabella starts crying again sometime in between Archibald reaching over to buckle her seatbelt for her and driving out of the parking lot. These tears are silent counterparts to the hurricane from earlier, but Isabella has just as little control now as she did then. They come without her say so, slipping down her cheeks and dropping onto the seat, her lap, her thighs. Once she starts she doesn’t know how to stop, and even Archibald curling his fingers around her own aren’t enough.The next few minutes are a flurry of activity; Archibald is as good as his word and informs one of the waitstaff that they’re leaving. No one so much as glances at Isabella, her red-rimmed eyes, or her shaky grip on Archibald’s hand. Someone cracks the seal on a water bottle and pours it into a to-go cup of ice, handing it to Archibald when Isabella doesn’t reach out to take it.By the time they reach the front door, a valet has brought the car around.
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 114
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 114: .“What was it specifically about tonight that was so upsetting to you?”Isabella winces. That’s a question that flies like an arrow and hits straight to the quick of the matter. She’s not sure how to talk about it without talking about everything else.Isabella wrings her hands in Archibald’s blankets.“I didn’t realize how—how much overlap there was going to be,” she says finally. “Until you said a name I recognized. You don’t get it— nobody liked me when I was working and it was—you don’t even know —it was bad, the whole thing was bad. The whole place was bad. The work culture was just, you know, eat or be eaten, everyone just waiting for the next person to fall? And when it was my turn, people just—they thought it was funny. That I was so bad at my job that I even got disowned too. Everybody knew about it and I—I didn’t want to be laughed at. In front of you. I didn’t want you to know what people thought about me.”Archibald make
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 115:
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 115: . “Did he touch you?”“What?” Isabella jerks her hand away from her nape, worrying her lower lip between her teeth.“Did he touch you?” Archibald repeats. “Did he put any part of his person onto your person without your express permission, desire, or request?”“I don’t think, uh, it doesn’t—““Please don’t tell me what should or shouldn’t matter to me. Did that man put his hands on you?”“Just, um. He grabbed me by the back of the neck, but I made him let go,” Isabella finally admits. Almost instantly, a strong hand that feels absolutely nothing like Nathaniel’s presses gently against the back of her neck and holds. Isabella relaxes into it with a soft exhale and feels the tension in her body begin to uncoil. “He made a shitty comment about my— our arrangement and, uh. He made an offer.”Archibald’s hands, which have been continuously moving, go very still.“It was an offer that I—er. That I didn’t appreciate. And then he asked if y
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 116:
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 116: .If life was a movie, this would be where Isabella magically starts getting her shit together.Unfortunately, if Isabella’s life was a movie it would probably be some sort of excruciating indie film in a foreign language with an ambiguous ending and no subtitles for the sake of pretension because in real life a meltdown and a heart-to-heart don’t really fix anything.There are unexpected repercussions that Isabella doesn’t see coming. Spending the weekend with Archibald is nice, but for a solid two weeks afterwards she struggles to leave her apartment. It’s a strange, nebulous fear that she never had, even when she was small and the monsters were out in the open and not just under her bed, but it’s hard to shake now. It feels like being hunted, even though Isabella knows that it’s ridiculous.Nathaniel’s opportunistic, not dedicated, and Isabella was merely convenient, not a target.She’s simply not that special and, realistically,
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 117:
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 117: .“Good luck,” Isabella says, charmed and just a bit breathless. “Knock ‘em dead.”“That’s the plan,” Archibald replies. “Thank you.”And then he’s walking back towards the ring like he hadn’t just grabbed Isabella’s heart by the throat and slammed it up against a wall. A metaphorical wall. A very metaphorical and definitely not literal wall, and Isabella definitely (metaphorically and not literally) doesn’t have to press the flat of her palm to her chest to take in a breath after. The headgear goes back on and the two men in the ring, the other in sky blue, bow to one another.Archibald’s preferred weapon is a jian. It’s one that Isabella can appreciate, even if she wasn’t ever that skilled with it, but it particularly suits Archibald in the way that it requires precision. It’s a gentleman’s weapon, after all, and Archibald wields it like it’s merely an extension of his arm.He’s fast and his movements are so liquid smooth that Isa
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 118:
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 118:.“Father wants to talk to you about coming back.”Isabella’s mug is halfway to her mouth when Chantelle drops that sentence like a bomb. It slips out of her fingers and orange juice spills across the table; Chantelle rolls her eyes and does nothing, as if daring that puddle to creep closer to the edge.“What?”“Are you deaf now, too? Father wants to talk to you about coming back. He misses you, Izzy.”“Pull the other one,” Isabella snaps.“Always so dramatic. Fine. Father has admitted at long last that your quality of work was never in question and that your firing was a result of temper and duress. He says that he’ll take you back, no questions asked, if you’ll agree to stop kissing our family's competition in the newspapers.”There are always questions asked. Nothing in this world has ever come from her father that didn’t have strings attached. It’s taken a long time, but Isabella always learns her lessons. She also picks out what
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 119
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 119:.“Oh my god.”Isabella waves at Dara where she’s standing next to her car. She’s dropped her eggs and doesn’t seem to care that yolk is getting all over her boots. Gross.“Sup.”“Isabella Huo, don’t you dare say ‘sup’ to me when you look like that. You look like you got hit by a truck and lost.”Isabella winces and gingerly wipes at her face. It’s not sticky anymore, and dried blood comes off in flakes. Double gross.The struggle is real.(Isabella thinks she might have a concussion.)“Can you yell at me later? I think I’m concussed.”Between one breath and the next, Dara yanks open the car door, and then she’s really, really close to Isabella’s face. She tries not to, but she can’t help the reflexive flinch after everything today that has her plastering her whole back against the seat, even though Dara’s hands aren’t anything but gentle when she reaches out for her.Her face drops when she pushes Isabella’s bangs aside and sees what
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Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 143
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 143: .It happens by accident.Archibald’s out of town again for work but tries to call in the evenings when he can and Isabella, consequently, does her best to be available despite the three-hour time difference. Dara can roll her eyes all she wants — and does — but keeps her smart remarks, if not to a minimum, then to an average.(“It’s part of our arrangement!” Isabella protests noisily as if the forty-five minutes she spends holed up in her bedroom have anything at all to do with those initial terms of their relationship and aren’t simply because she misses the man like a limb when he’s gone.Dara makes an unflattering snort and digs her elbow into Isabella’s side, stealing a pretzel out of her bag while she’s distracted.“Uh-huh,” she says, “Is that what we’re calling it now, Ms. Codependent?”“I don’t think I like you anymore.”Isabella, among other things, is a liar. A bad one.)It happens by accident because Isabella’s bundled up
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 142:
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 142: .See, if Isabella’s life was a movie, this is where it would end.A great romantic conclusion tied up with a neat little bow, roll credits, and scene.But this isn’t a movie, and this isn’t where it ends.“I’m thinking about going back to school,” Isabella says one afternoon during a lunch date. She doesn’t stop stirring anxiously at her gelato until Archibald reaches out to physically stop her before it turns to soup, and she won’t like it as much.“I think that’s a good idea,” he replies.Isabella is still basically unhireable, further blacklisted professionally by the drama that came out of her father’s quick but messy trial that put him in jail for years and ruined any good reputation any of them might have had.(The man left a single furious, frothing voicemail on Isabella’s phone that could be summed up as three straight minutes of death threats that included everyone from Isabella herself to the cat to the goldfish that had o
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 141:
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 142: .“You know, I almost broke up with you last night.”Archibald’s steady calm, the largest holdover from last night, holds up even as he nods in agreement. “I know.”Isabella scowls at him.“How’d you know? I barely knew until I’d decided not to.”“Because I know you. You’ve been given precious few people in life who haven’t broken your trust, and I did that by going behind your back. It would have been an understandable reaction, and I wouldn’t have begrudged you—“Isabella slams that ocean blue tumbler down on the table with a clatter. Her eyes are bright with emotion, and her lips are turned down in an irritated scowl.“Maybe you wouldn’t,” she snaps, “but I’d sure as shit begrudge you if you just, what, let me break up with you without so much as asking me not to? What the fuck, man.”“You are an adult who can make your own decisions—““Yeah, but that doesn’t mean I want you to just let me go when I’m about to do something stupid!
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 140
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 140:.There is coffee, kept hot in the kind of insulated tumbler that costs too much and coordinates with the beachy colors of the house. Isabella has a suspicion that it was bought specifically for her, because Archibald is a crazy person who thinks about that kind of stuff. It doesn’t stop her from drinking it.“Tell me what you did,” Isabella orders before she can talk herself out of it and in spite of the very large part of her that doesn’t actually want to know. “Something something something about buying out the board?” she elaborates with a pointed stare. Because Chantelle, of all people, wouldn’t be bailing unless the ship is sinking. The ship might already be sunk if she’s that willing to abandon what she sees as her birthright. A birthright that she’s always seen as a competition, even though she’d won right out the gate and Isabella’s so stupid that it took literally being disowned to see that she never stood a chance.“Oh, th
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 139
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 139: .Isabella and Alan had settled many a disagreement with an angry tussle in bed that was worth the drop afterward for being able to get a little of her own back, to feel seen and heard. Except that Archibald already makes her feel seen and heard, and right now Isabella just sort of wants one of them to hurt, and she’s not sure who.“Stop, stop, enough,” Archibald orders, kinder than Isabella deserves, and wipes the beginnings of tears out of the corners of Isabella’s eyes before she even realizes that she’s about to cry. “I know, baby. I know.”“You don’t know anything.” It comes out way less cool and way more pathetic when Isabella’s voice cracks on what is definitely an overtired, strung-out sob. “You don’t know anything.”“I know that you’re exhausted and running on fumes and that you’d rather have the kind of sex that’s not good for you and that you don’t even want than get what you need,” Archibald tells her. “I’d say I know pl
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 138
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 138: .The only tears Chantelle’s ever shed have been of the crocodilian variety, as purposeful a tactic as any insult. Even after she’d forced herself to learn how to stop, she’d never managed to wield emotion like a weapon. At times like this, Isabella sort of wishes that she had.Isabella trembles and wraps her arms around herself, chilled even underneath the blanket. The edges are getting wet with saltwater and crusted with sand, and she would bite anyone who might try to take it from her.Archibald doesn’t touch her, but Isabella can feel him practically vibrating with the way he wants to. Right now, Isabella would be happy to bite him, too.“I don’t think you’re stupid.”“Well, it sure feels like it.”Archibald literally wrings his hands in open distress, and even now, it doesn’t feel remotely like a win. Isabella’s gotten exactly what she’s asked for—space and someone else being the one to hurt, but it doesn’t lessen her own, not e
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 137
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 137:.It's still pitch black outside, but Isabella finds herself at the edge of the water anyway. The ocean doesn’t give a damn about Isabella’s battered foundation and rolls happily up the night-cooled sand, leaving only foam and bits of seashell behind.Isabella sits at the shoreline and tucks her knees up under her chin.She wonders, miserably, where Chantelle plans to go.God, she hopes her sister gets as far away as she can.Isabella's spent her whole life loyal, but Chantelle? She’s fanatical to a degree that Isabella could never quite manage, and she wonders if putting her loyalty into a cage match with her relentless drive to protect herself finally did what nothing else could—crack that fanaticism. She’ll never know; it’s not her place now, and even if it was, Chantelle would never let her.God, she hopes Chantelle got as far away as she possibly can.Mai, with much derision, refers to it as Isabella's "better place theory." Mom
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 136
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 136: .“Oh, please. Because your boytoy just woke up and bought half our board and their corresponding shares out from under us for some weekend summer fun? I didn’t think you had it in you, but I guess you had to grow a spine sometime.”Isabella’s brain goes blank. Chantelle’s words land with all the delicacy and grace of anvils, pinning her down under their weight like a butterfly in a box.“I didn’t—you’re wrong,” she protests.“Sure, okay. Keep telling yourself that. Anyway, don’t bother saving this number; I’m ditching the phone once my plane boards. Congratulations on your win, Izzy. We always knew you’d ruin the family, but I didn’t think it’d be like this. Have a good rest of your life, I guess.”There’s a click and then a dial tone. Isabella tries to call back, but it goes straight to a generic voicemail that she knows won’t ever be checked. At best it’s a burner phone; at worst it’s Chantelle’s regular phone that she’s willing t
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 135
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 135: .There’s the temptation after breakfast to go back to bed and find another way to entertain themselves, but Archibald shuffles her to go shower instead.“It’s about ten miles to get into town,” he says when Isabella protests in an appropriately dignified manner, definitely not pouting at having to put pants on. “You’ll like it.” Isabella does pout, then, and is rewarded for her bad behavior by being hoisted up onto the bathroom counter and thoroughly kissed until she’ll say yes to just about anything. And she does say yes, eventually, and delays the inevitable by about ten minutes by sticking her hands down the back of Archibald’s pajamas.Isabella’s never had this kind of domesticity in a relationship before, and it should feel strange but it doesn’t, just scaffolds its way up the norms built in by months of getting to know each other. It doesn’t feel weird at all for Isabella to snag Archibald by the wrist and tug him into the sho
