I Funded Him 10 Years, I Married His Boss

Chapter 2

I'd passed out from low blood sugar and been rushed to the hospital. Every single student I sponsored had come to check on me.

Everyone except Jace.

He was too busy with work, too busy planning dates with Sadie.

Too busy to even pop in and see me at the hospital right next door.

My assistant crouched down gently beside my hospital bed, voice lowered to a whisper. "Ms. Rivers, the investigation into Sadie Wilson we started earlier? We've got the results."

I nodded after they filled me in. No big surprise, she was a plant sent by our rival company.

Jace had let himself get played like a fiddle by someone like her? He didn't deserve that department manager seat he was sitting in.

I pulled out my phone and tapped open my chat with Jace.

Me: We need to meet. I have something important to tell you.

I waited forever before my screen finally lit up with a reply.

Jace: Naomi, if you're that bored, go hit the gym. I don't have time to entertain you.

Right after that, he sent a candid, cozy photo of him and Sadie. In the picture, the beauty mark that looked exactly like my late husband's was gone, only a faint red mark from laser removal remained.

All the pent-up rage and hurt I'd been holding in finally boiled over. I reared my arm back, ready to hurl my phone across the room, when a pair of warm hands wrapped around my wrist to stop me.

It was Levi Spencer.

"I've been looking everywhere for you these past two days," he said.

I blinked in confusion. I hadn't told anyone I was in the hospital. How did he know?

"Saw your daily activity count was only in single digits, so I figured something must have happened." He paused, then held up his phone with a grin. "C'mon, look... your daughter's been camped out at my place, refusing to leave. Says I'm not allowed to come back unless I bring her mom home."

He pulled up a photo on his phone and held it out to me. My head was spinning with a tangled mess of conflicting emotions, but the second I saw my daughter, Nathalie's grinning face, every last dark cloud in my chest melted away.

Noticing my mood lightening, he started peeling an apple next to my bed, teasing me as he worked. "You know, that kid is so attached to me, it's crazy. You think she's trying to get me to be her new dad?"

I froze at the question.

We'd been best friends for over thirty years, ever since we were kids. I'd turned him down back in the day for the silliest reason: I lived by the old rule, never date your childhood best friend.

But ever since my husband Leo passed away, he'd been pursuing me nonstop again.

"Naomi, Leo actually came to me in a dream once. Told me to take good care of you." He grinned, but there was a soft earnestness in his eyes. "I can't go against his wishes, right?"

He caught the sad glint in my eyes, realized I was thinking about Leo, and quickly scrambled to backtrack as he added, "Actually... uh, Spencer Corporation is in huge trouble right now. The only way to save it is to merge with the Rivers Group through marriage."

I almost snorted. The financial news just yesterday had said Spencer Corporation was still firmly sitting at the top of the industry leader board.

This was the same Levi Spencer who was cold and quiet around everyone else, always so stoic and professional. And here he was, spouting absolute nonsense just to make me smile.

"If you say yes, I'll give you all my shares in the company. Deal?"

I opened my mouth to reply, but he popped a freshly peeled slice of apple right into it before I could get a word out.

"Naomi, I'm being serious this time. Don't turn me down again." His eyes were soft and hopeful, and he just stood there gazing at me like a dork, all earnest and hopeful.

I snort-laughed so hard apple juice spritzed all over his face.

I'd barely laughed at all since Leo left. Right before he died, he'd squeezed my hand weakly and said, "Naomi, don't cry. When you meet someone who makes you laugh again, don't let them go."

There was a time I'd thought about keeping Jace around. That face of his was so familiar it would often trick me into thinking my husband was still alive.

But I'd just seen on my social feed that he'd gotten the exact same beauty mark my husband had removed, just to make Sadie happy.

All of a sudden, Jace didn't seem like anything special at all. He was just some random guy, nothing to write home about.

"Okay. Let's get married."

Levi's eyes lit up with pure, disbelieving joy. He was so flustered he looked like a giddy teenage boy who'd just asked out his crush and actually heard yes.

Word of our upcoming marriage spread like wildfire across the whole city in no time.

Every high-profile figure in town got their hands on one of our wedding invitations.

Levi bustled back and forth handling every last detail, all to make the princess-and-prince fairy tale I'd dreamed of as a little girl come true.

It turned out even more lavish than the wedding I'd shared with Leo.

I fidgeted a little, sheepishly. "You really didn't have to go this far... I've already been married once, after all..."

He looked at me, dead serious. "I've been planning this wedding in my head for ten whole years. It's the most important thing I'll ever do in my life. I can't let it have a single flaw," he said. "Naomi, I'm the one punching way above my weight here. Marrying you is the best deal I'll ever get."

Warmth bloomed in my chest, and I stepped forward to wrap my arms around him in return.

Surrounded by that soft, glowing happiness, it hit me out of nowhere how stupid I'd been to waste so much time obsessing over Jace before.