One Night With My Ex's Billionaire Brother

What Nora Knows

No name. Just a number, and eleven words.

She knew about the pregnancy before she called you.

I read it once.

Then again.

Third time slower, like the words might rearrange themselves if I gave them enough time.

They didn’t.

I screenshotted it. Deleted the original.

My thumb hovered for a second after, like maybe I’d just erased something I wasn’t supposed to.

Then I put my phone away and kept walking.

Because whoever sent it—

No.

Because I wasn’t going to stop just because someone wanted me to.

---

Celia picked up on the first ring.

“Talk.”

So I did.

I didn’t even try to organize or structure my words.

I just… let it out.

I told her everything; The gala, the bar, Alexander, the clinic, Jason, the provision, Diana Voss, the text.

I said things twice. Skipped some parts. Came back to them. Lost my place halfway through and kept going anyway.

By the time I stopped, my throat hurt and I had no idea where I was standing.

There was traffic. A bakery smell close to me. Someone was laughing too loudly behind me.

“Okay,” Celia said.

Her voice was calm. That's why I always tell her everything, she's the voice of reason between the both of us.

“Find somewhere to sit.”

“I’m fine.”

“Nora.”

A pause.

I looked around, then dropped onto the nearest stoop like my knees had made the decision before I did.

“Good,” she said. “Now listen.”

I pressed my fingers against my eyes.

“First—” she went on, “you slept with someone who was kind to you on the worst night of your life. That’s not a mistake. That’s a human reaction. Stop trying to rewrite it into something smaller.”

Something in my chest shifted, and I felt a bit lighter.

I swallowed it back down.

“And second,” she said, “you’re about to try to carry all of this alone. Don’t.”

“Celia—”

“I mean it. I will get on a plane. I will show up. I will follow you around Manhattan like a problem you can’t solve.”

Despite everything, something almost like a laugh caught in my throat.

It didn’t come out.

“The text,” she said, sharper now. “It didn’t come from Voss.”

I stilled.

“…why?”

“She had you on the phone,” Celia said. “If she wanted to unsettle you, that was the moment. She didn’t take it. The text came after.”

A pause.

“Which means someone was watching that call happen.”

My fingers slipped from my eyes.

“What?”

“That’s not a big list, Nora.” Her voice dropped slightly. “That’s a very small list.”

Something cold moved under my skin.

“And one of them,” she said, “is the man you just had breakfast with.”

I stared across the street.

A guy was arguing with a parking meter like it had personally offended him.

“You think it was Alexander.”

“I think you need to consider it,” she said. “Before you decide what you say to him next.”

I didn’t answer.

Because the thought had already landed.

And worse—

It didn’t feel impossible.

It felt… possible.

Too possible.

Had he known I’d call Celia too?

No.

That was—

I pushed the thought away.

“Call me later,” Celia said, softer now. “Just… call me.”

“Okay.”

I hung up.

And for a second, I just sat there.

Trying to figure out when exactly things had stopped making sense.