Chapter 1
“Lennox, sweetheart, I’m not asking you to just hand over your engagement to Raina for free. Of course there’ll be compensation…”
The familiar voice wrapped around her ears.
Lennox struggled through the tearing pain and forced her eyes open, suddenly realizing-
Holly shit, she was reborn!
Back to one month before her wedding to Hayes Montgomery!
As she looked down, she caught sight of her father–Alaric Thorne’s furrowed brow, that earnest expression–exactly the same as when he’d pressured her to give up her engagement the first time.
“Deal.”
Lennox’s voice came out rough, cutting him off mid guilt trip.
Her father froze, looking up at her with undisguised joy in his eyes. “Lennox! Thank God, you’ve finally come around!”
Something cold flickered in Lennox’s eyes as her lips curved into a mocking smile.
“I want a billion-”
“A billion? Are you lost your mind!?” Before she could finish, her father’s face flushed deep red, veins throbbing at his temples.
Lennox casually tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, completing her sentence with deliberate calm: “Plus, I want you to cut all ties. No more father–daughter bullshit.”
Her father’s expression changed drastically, his pointing finger shaking: “You bastard! Do you know what you’re saying?”
“Of course I do!”
Lennox looked up, her eyes churning with bone–deep hatred. “From the day you cheated during my mother’s pregnancy and caused her death along with her unborn child, you lost the right to be my father!”
“Besides, Raina’s the only daughter you’ve ever cared about anyway. You’re willing to force me out of my own engagement for her sake. So really, what’s the difference if we make this official?”
“Two conditions. Not one less.” She leaned forward slightly, impatience creeping into her voice. “Just tell me–yes or no?”
Her father’s face turned ashen, his chest heaving with rage. After a long pause, he spat through gritted teeth: “Fine! Cut ties then! Don’t come crawling back! I need time for the billion, but I have a condition too-”
“That Montgomery heir is quite taken with you. To ensure Raina can marry him smoothly, you must get out of the country within a month and never come back!”
Those words hit Lennox like a physical blow.
She couldn’t tell what hurt more–seeing how far her father would go for Raina, or hearing him say “that Montgomery heir is quite taken with you.”
Her lips barely moved as she whispered: “No… he’s not.”
“What did you say?” Her father didn’t catch it and instinctively pressed.
Lennox lowered her gaze, hiding the coldness in her eyes, her voice flat and emotionless: “Nothing. One month. Billion dollars in my account. I’ll
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A Billion–Dollar Goodbye: Too Late for Second Chances, Mr. Ex
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Chapter 1
handle the paperwork and disappear from your lives forever.”
She turned and headed for the door, only to freeze when she saw Hayes Montgomery and Raina walking side by side.
The two were chatting and laughing, looking quite intimate.
She still remembered when Hayes first met Raina–pure disgust written all over his face.
When Raina tried to get close, he’d grabbed her throat with one hand until she nearly suffocated, warning coldly: “Back off.”
But now? Now he was looking at her like she hung the moon. His heart had already turned to Raina, even back then.
The realization tore through Lennox like broken glass, leaving her numb and breathless.
Memories from her past life flooded back.
Her mother, driven to her death along with her unborn child, while her father brought his mistress and bastard daughter into their home. Lennox, treated like dirt under their feet.
It was Hayes, bound to her by engagement, who’d stormed into that house and pulled her out of the windowless room where they’d locked her up, beaten and broken.
From that moment, Hayes and the Montgomery family became her lifeline.
He’d wrapped her in his protection like armor. Her family feared the Montgomery power but craved the social elevation this marriage would bring, constantly pushing for Raina to take her place.
But how could Lennox ever agree?
How could she give up the one thing her mother had secured for her–a friendship–sealed engagement that was her mother’s final gift to this world?
She’d fought off every threat, every bribe.
Unwilling to give up, Raina had even stripped naked and climbed into Hayes’s room, only to be thrown out mercilessly.
On the wedding day, Raina had threatened suicide, clinging to his leg and wailing, ultimately jumping into the sea in front of everyone, seemingly perishing without a trace.
Lennox thought that with Raina gone, she and Hayes could live peacefully.
. For three years, they were. Or so she’d believed.
Until that day she’d seen them on the street–Hayes and Raina wrapped in each other’s arms, with a two–year–old child.
Raina wasn’t dead. Hayes had hidden her elsewhere, and they even had a child together.
Before she could confront them, an out–of–control truck came barreling toward her.
As her body was crushed beneath the wheels, she’d caught Hayes looking her way. Those eyes that had once held such warmth for her were now cold
as winter stone.
In her final moments, one thought had burned through the pain:
If she ever got another chance, she would fulfill Hayes and Raina as the “loving couple” they were. She was done being anyone’s fool!
“Lennie!”
Hayes’s voice snapped her back to the present.
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A Billion–Dollar Goodbye: Too Late for Second Chances, Mr. Ex
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Chapter 1
His whole face lit up when he spotted her, like she’d just made his entire day. That look used to make her feel like the center of his universe.
Now she knew he’d perfected that same expression for someone else.
Hayes reached for her hand with familiar ease: “One month to go! I came to take you for your final dress fitting!”
Lennox stared at his outstretched hand, but all she could see was those same fingers intertwined with Raina’s.
Her stomach twisted. She smoothly sidestepped his reach, giving him a curt “Fine” before brushing past him.
Hayes blinked at his empty hand, confused but not alarmed. Probably just wedding stress, he figured, jogging to catch up.
As she passed Raina, the girl’s fingers caught her sleeve with practiced hesitation:
“Sis, could I… come with you two for the dress fitting?”
Lennox looked at the carefully disguised meekness in her eyes and suddenly smiled.
“Sure.”
“No!”
Two voices rang out simultaneously.
Hayes looked at Lennox in shock, his eyes full of confusion: “Lennie, don’t you hate… her the most?”
“Why…”
Lennox sneered inwardly.
Why?
Because in exactly one month, the one walking down that aisle in white, it would only be Raina.
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