Divorcing the Billionaire: I'm No One's Stand-in

I couldn't be bothered with unnecessary hassle. Even when it came to marriage, I chose a business arrangement just to keep things simple.

Who knew that three years in, my husband, Julian, would spend the day keeping his widowed secretary company at her late husband's grave?

That night, I had someone pick up an extravagant arrangement, and I dropped them right in front of him. "Darling, since you seem to love paying your respects so much, you can handle my family's mausoleum tomorrow."

Julian froze. "I've got a business trip tomorrow. I'll have someone else handle it"

I flashed him a flawless smile, cutting him off. "No. I want you to go."

It was a punishment. And a warning.

Divorce guaranteed a major headache, but ripping apart a homewrecker drained entirely too much energy.

Chapter 1

Julian stared at me, his brows pulling together in genuine confusion.

I slammed my phone down on the marble table. "Today is our third anniversary. You told me to meet you at the restaurant, and then you left me sitting there for two hours."

The screen glowed with an Instagram story from his brand-new secretary, Sadie. "Honoring the forever love of my life. Today has been so incredibly hard, but thankfully I have the very best boss."

The photo featured a teary-eyed selfie of Sadie on one side, and Julian gripping the steering wheel on the other. I double-tapped the screen, leaving a cold, hard like.

"So that's why you're upset." Julian let out a helpless little laugh. "I'm sorry, Seraphina. I never meant to keep you waiting. I really thought I texted you. I just gave Sadie a ride since it was on the way. She doesn't have any family or friends. She was struggling, and the cemetery gets sketchy after dark, so I just stayed a little longer to make sure she was safe."

He reached out, wrapping his arms around my waist. "Besides, we were standing over her dead husband's grave. What could possibly happen between us? You're overthinking this."

I nodded, keeping my expression neutral. "Fine. You know where the boundaries are. You wouldn't do anything to create a mess for me, right?"

I chose Julian because he possessed gorgeous genes, knew how to read a room, and most importantlyrequired zero maintenance.

Julian dipped his head, pressing a soft, lingering kiss against my lips.

"But darling, you still left me waiting for a very long time today." My smile never faltered. "So, you'll be visiting the family estate tomorrow to pay your respects. Personally."

I had already laid the flowers myself. Julian had missed it due to a business trip, and normally, I wouldn't have cared. But people who mess up need a gentle reminder of their place.

Julian's face went rigid. Before he could open his mouth, my phone buzzed.

"Ma'am it's Sadie." Sadie's voice trembled through the speaker. "I'm so sorry for calling this late. I just wanted to explain. That post didn't mean anything. Julian was just being a good person, taking pity on someone completely alone. Please don't be mad at him. I could never live with myself if I caused a fight between you two"

Julian frowned slightly, his eyes tracking my reaction.

I said nothing at all.

The silence stretched until Sadie's whimpers quieted down. Only then did Julian speak, his tone softening. "Sadie, it's fine. You didn't need to call Seraphina to explain. She's not the jealous type."

Hearing Julian's voice on my end, Sadie gasped. She mumbled a pathetic string of thank-yous before hastily ending the call.

Chapter 2

I kept my mouth shut.

Julian buried his face in the crook of my neck, letting out a heavy sigh. "Alright, babe. My bad. I'll keep my distance from her from now on. Please don't be mad."

The next day, Julian canceled all his meetings and drove out to my family's private estate. He didn't bring a single assistant. He spent the entire day tending to the mausoleum alone.

By the time he returned, he was limping, the knees of his expensive slacks ruined, his hands blistered and raw from scrubbing.

A quiet sense of satisfaction settled in.

In all our years of marriage, this was the first time Julian had blurred the boundaries. At the end of the day, it was a minor slip-up. He was a smart man. I had no interest in making a messy scene out of it.

That was, until Rosalind's birthday gala.

I had Bruce pull the town car up to Julian's corporate headquarters to pick him up. Right there, on the curb, Sadie was crouched over, her face drained of color.

Julian's facade shattered. "Pull over! What happened? Where does it hurt?"

Sadie squeezed her eyes shut, gasping, unable to form a word.

Julian immediately hooked his arms under hers, hauling her toward my car. "To the ER!"

I didn't say a word. The car didn't budge an inch. "Put her in the trailing security SUV. Let the driver take her."

I met Julian's frantic gaze with dead calm. "A gentle reminder, Julian. You're her boss, nothing more."

Julian's jaw tightened.

Right on cue, Sadie started whimpering. She gripped the fabric of Julian's custom suit jacket, looking utterly pitiful. "I'm fine, Julian. You and Seraphina have plans. I've been on my own for years, I can handle this" Another sharp gasp ripped from her throat.

Julian shot me a look of lethal ice. "Seraphina, she's alone in this world and clearly in agony. Do you have a shred of humanity left?"

My patience officially snapped. Did the trailing security drivers not count as human? I had already offered a perfectly logical solution. "Are you getting in or not?"

Julian hauled Sadie back out of my car, wrapping his arms protectively around her waist.

I tapped the glass partition. Bruce hit the gas. The two of them shrank in the rearview mirror until they vanished.

At the country club, the seat next to me remained empty for the entire dinner. I didn't even have to listen closely; the whispers from the surrounding tables were impossible to miss.

"Skipping his own mother-in-law's birthday gala? Guess Seraphina and Julian's marriage is just a PR stunt after all."

"You didn't hear? Her husband hired some tragic young widow as his secretary. You know how those sob stories always end up in the boss's bed"

I kept slicing my steak without a flicker of emotion. My mother, Rosalind, however, had a face like thunder.

My mother-in-law, Valerie, leaned over with a perfectly practiced look of distress to explain it away to my mother. "Julian is just so swamped with the merger. A major emergency came up at the office. Please, let me apologize on his behalf."

Rosalind forced a stiff, icy smile. She couldn't care less about an empty chair at her party. She only cared that someone was making a fool out of me.

Valerie signaled the waiter to slide a fresh plate of seared scallops in front of me. "Seraphina, dear, a marriage only survives if both people are willing to compromise. Don't let those tacky rumors get to you."

I gave Valerie a tight, noncommittal smile. The dessert plates were cleared, and Julian still hadn't bothered to show up.

Right before we left, my father, Irving, offered a relaxed, dangerous smile. He casually brought up the lucrative joint venture our two families were negotiating. "I reviewed the proposal. There are a few key points that need serious recalibration. We might need to rethink this entire partnership"

Valerie flinched. She immediately lunged for Rosalind's hands, her tone dripping with desperation. "Oh, let's leave the corporate talk out of tonight! Please, stay for one more round of drinks. I completely forgotI won a rare vintage decanter at Sotheby's last month, and I've been dying to gift it to you, Irving."

With that, Valerie successfully guilt-tripped us back into our seats.

Chapter 3

Twenty minutes later, the security detail half-dragged Julian into our VIP dining room. His face was dark with anger.

Valerie snapped at him without hesitation. "Have you lost your damn mind? Skipping your mother-in-law's birthday? The firm can wait."

Julian forced a stiff, humiliated smile. He didn't offer a single excuse.

Valerie grabbed his arm, forcing him to issue a humiliating, groveling apology right in front of Rosalind. With that, the incident was swept under the rug.

When Julian finally stood back up, the look he shot me was glacial.

Down in the valet lot, I realized I left my clutch upstairs. I spun around to grab it. Right as I approached the private lounge, I caught Valerie whispering to Nancy, her head housekeeper.

"A man from Julian's background? They all step out. We put on a good show, and that is more respect than most wives get. Seraphina knows her place. A divorce would tank the corporate stock. She wouldn't dare."

I grabbed my clutch and walked away in dead silence.

The drive back to our estate was suffocatingly quiet.

The second we stepped inside, Julian rubbed his temples, exhaling heavily. "Seraphina, dragging our parents into this was an insane overreaction. Did you even know Sadie was in surgery? I had no idea you were capable of being this cold-blooded."

A dry laugh ripped from my throat. "Getting a polyp removed during a routine endoscopy counts as major surgery now?"

The girl couldn't wait to flex her hospital bracelet on her Instagram stories. Julian was the one who essentially forced her to get checked out of sheer paranoia anyway.

"Sadie's a widow. She went through hell at such a young age. Can you stop targeting her for five seconds?"

"A widow? She lost a husband, not her entire bloodline."

Julian choked on his words. His jaw clenched tight.

Arguing was exhausting. I didn't have the energy to deal with his fragile ego.

His phone buzzed against his palm. He answered, and Sadie's voice bled through the speaker, thick with fake tears. "Julian I'm all alone in this hospital room. I'm having a panic attack. I just needed to hear your voice."

The frost on Julian's face melted instantly. He snatched his trench coat off the rack, already heading for the door. "Don't panic. I'm on my way."

In that split second, a tidal wave of logistics crashed into my brain.

Pre-nups. Asset division. Equity valuation. PR nightmares. A blinding migraine throbbed behind my eyes.

I never loved Julian. At best, he was easy on the eyes. I figured I had just bought an expensive, pretty vase to decorate my mansion.

I never expected this vase to become such a huge liability.

Then, a real mess dropped into my lap.

A few days later, Lachlan hosted a welcome-back party at an exclusive club. I reached for the brass handle of the private booth. Voices drifted through the heavy mahogany door.

"Seraphina is a doormat. Julian is openly parading that tragic widow around the office, and she hasn't said a word. Divorce is a financial nightmare. What is the point of throwing a fit? Plus, Julian swears she's obsessed with him. They're never splitting up."

My hand froze on the brass handle.

I was running my own empire. I didn't have the time to babysit Julian, let alone micromanage his HR department.

"Didn't Julian only marry Seraphina because she looks a little bit like his dead ex?"

"Exactly. And now this secretary shows up. She's a dead ringer for Dahlia. Spending every waking hour together? Of course he's going to catch feelings."

My breath caught in my throat.

My lungs seized.

I couldn't care less about Julian's dating history.

But being a blind stand-in for a ghost?

My stomach turned.

Chapter 4

Lachlan shot a sleazy look across the table. "Look at Seraphina. Stiff. Boring. Now look at the little widow. Innocent, pitiful a completely different flavor. No wonder Julian is obsessed. If you ask me, Seraphina needs to look in the mirror"

The private booth erupted in gross, frat-boy laughter.

"Is Julian even showing up tonight?"

Someone gasped. "Holy shit. He's at the hospital with the widow. At the OB-GYN!"

My brow twitched. Julian's last text from a few days ago flashed in my mind: "Out of town for a week. Let's cool off. We'll talk when I get back.

"Julian works fast," Lachlan snickered. "He's definitely keeping her as a little secret on the side"

I pushed the heavy mahogany door open, plastering on a flawless smile. "Really? Let me see."

"Right heOh shit. Seraphina!" Lachlan's hand froze mid-air. The smug grin slid right off his face. "Sorry! We were just running our mouths. Please don't take it seriously"

The glowing screen hovered inches from my face. A blurry, secretly snapped photo. Sadie stood in a hospital corridor, clutching a pink sonogram folder. Her eyes visibly melted with tenderness.

A baby.

A sharp throbbing spiked behind my temples. Physical proof. A catastrophic scandal. An illegitimate heir. A vicious war over the trust fund. Exhausting. Just exhausting. Way more of a headache than a simple divorce.

I pulled out my phone and punched in a number. "Reed. Draft the divorce papers. I need them right now."

I spun on my heel and marched straight for the exit. My thumbs flew across the screen, dialing the next number. "Cameron. I have an exclusive scoop. Get to Riverside Hospital. Now."

If I was going to clean up a mess, I was going to burn it out by the root.

Bane stood perfectly straight, yanking the door of the SUV open for me.

Cameron was already waiting at the hospital entrance with a full camera crew. Telephoto lenses. Microphones. Quinn gripped her mirrorless camera, flashing me a sharp thumbs-up.

A literal army of media trailed behind me as I stepped out of the elevator on the maternity ward. Nurses and patients whipped their heads around at the sheer noise.

The hallway sat relatively empty. I spotted them instantly.

Sadie had a shy, flushed glow. She was beaming with joy. She clung to Julian's bicep. Her breath ghosted against his jaw as she pressed herself against him, whispering intimately into his ear.

Cameron and Quinn didn't miss a single beat. Blinding white flashes erupted down the corridor. Strobe lights bounced off the sterile walls.

Julian and Sadie flinched, shrinking back from the violent burst of light. Their heads snapped toward the endless mechanical clicking. The color drained from their faces.

Sadie snatched her hands away. She stumbled backward, ripping herself away from Julian.

Julian locked eyes with me. Utter shock warped his features. "Seraphina what the hell are you doing"

I ignored him and flicked my wrist.

Bane lunged forward. His heavy hands clamped down on Sadie's shoulders, pinning her in place.

"Seraphina, have you lost your damn mind?!" Julian turned lethal. "Get your hands off her! Back the hell up!"

Nobody even blinked at him.

Sadie turned the color of chalk. Her bottom lip trembled. "Ma'am what are you doing"

I raised my hand.

Smack. Smack.

Two vicious slaps cracked across her cheeks. The impact shoved the rest of her pathetic words right back down her throat.

"You spam my husband's phone in the middle of the night. You show up knocked up with his kid. And you have the nerve to ask me what I'm doing?"

Chapter 5