I Married My Ex's Billionaire Father-Chapter 290: You Will Be Mine Again

"What do you mean?" Lyse demanded, pushing herself up against the headboard. The movement made her head spin slightly, an effect of Levi’s unsettling proclamation.

"You have to live here for the time being, until things get sorted," Levi repeated. His voice was dropped to a low, soothing register, the kind one might use to calm a skittish mare in a lightning storm. He didn’t move toward her, sensing that any intrusion into her personal space right now would only make her bolt.

"What things are getting sorted?" Lyse asked, her arms akimbo over the duvet. "I know that you have been a tremendous help in the past few days and believe me, I’m grateful for the lack of bullet holes in my skin but that does not mean I am not serious about the divorce, Levi. Being saved doesn’t mean I’m being reclaimed."

Levi sighed, a sound of weary frustration that seemed to echo through the high ceilings of the master suite. "This is not about us, Lyse. Not right now. This is about keeping you alive. I will tie you up and lock the door if I have to, but you are not walking back into that apartment until the threats are neutralized."

"Keep me safe? From what? From my own shadow?"

"Incidents like last night! At this point, it’s like you are a danger magnet," Levi countered, his own voice rising. "First, you almost let yourself get abducted by that blonde piranha in the parking lot because you were too tired to get a more reliable ride. Then, we got shot at by professionals in a high-speed SUV. I have to keep you in a place where I have control over the perimeter, where my men can vet every person who comes within a mile of you. You will be safe here."

"Why would anyone shoot at me?" Lyse protested, her voice laced with disbelief. She gestured wildly toward the window. "You are the one who is doing hostile takeovers and corporate mergers, Levi! You are the one with the enemies list a mile long. You are almost certainly the target. And your ’blondie’ would not be trying to kidnap me if she did not think I was standing in her way somehow. Tell her we have broken up, tell her I’m nothing to you, and no one will threaten my life ever again."

"Honey thinks that you might know where a bunch of keys that belonged to Brett might be," Levi continued, ignoring her jab about his supposed lovers.

Lyse paused, her brow furrowed. "Keys? What keys? And why on earth would she think I have them?"

"Because you have been allowing Brandon to court you," Levi said, the name Brandon sounding like a curse in his mouth. "She probably thinks that Brandon has confided in you about the location of the keys or that he’s hidden them with you for safekeeping. In her world, the woman is always the vault."

Lyse stared at Levi suspiciously, her eyes narrowing as she searched for a lie. "You sound jealous," she blurted out. "You’re making all of this up. The pimp stories, the keys, the danger just so I’ll stay away from Brandon. It’s none of your business, but for the record, I have every intention of staying away from him after what happened the other night. I don’t need you to invent a conspiracy to make that happen."

"As a matter of fact, I am jealous," Levi said solemnly, taking a step closer to the bed. His gaze was intense, unblinking. "I am jealous of the fact that you even entertained Brandon at all, that you let him into your space after everything. But I would never lie to you about your safety. I know how badly one lie fractured our relationship, Lyse. I would never make that mistake again. The stakes are too high now."

He took a deep breath, the air in the room turning heavy with the weight of the confession he was about to make.

"It’s not just Honey, Lyse. It’s bigger than her. Your aunt, Ophelia Welhaven, is trying to kill you. She wants to ensure she doesn’t have to share the family fortune, a fortune that is rightfully yours. She has spent years meticulously dismantling your life from the shadows. She succeeded in sending your mother away. She set your father up to take the fall for the death of her husband. She killed Brooke, and she is the reason Lottie is currently fighting for her life in a coma."

Lyse felt the blood drain from her face. The names of her family members, spoken in connection with words like killed and coma, made the world tilt on its axis. "What... what are you saying?"

"She tried to kill your father in jail yesterday," Levi said, his voice hard. "He survived the attack, and I have moved him to a secure medical facility where her people can’t reach him. I am fairly certain she was behind the shootout yesterday, too. She’s cleaning house, Lyse. She’s trying to eraseyouentirely so there’s no one left to challenge her. I won’t know the exact logistics until Ethan is done with his investigation, but all roads lead back to Ophelia."

When Lyse continued staring at him in a state of catatonic confusion, her mind unable to bridge the gap between her life as a fashion designer and this tale of dynastic murder, Levi went to his bedside drawer. He pulled out a bulky, black leather folder, thick with documents, photographs, and transcripts. He walked to the bed and placed it directly into her trembling hands.

"This is what I have been able to gather so far," Levi said, his voice softening. "It contains the DNA results, the records of Ophelia’s payments to the guards, the history of the Welhaven estate, and the truth about Maeve. I want you to go through it. Every question you have, everything that feels like a hole in your memory or your history will be answered by what’s in those pages."

Lyse looked down at the folder. The weight of it felt like a lead brick. She could see the edge of a photograph peeking out, a woman who looked so much like her it was haunting.

"You don’t have to come down for lunch," Levi said, heading toward the door. He paused with his hand on the handle, his silhouette framed by the morning light. "I’ll have Mrs. Joe bring your food up. Stay in bed. Read. Try to process it. My security is outside the door, and no one gets in without my personal clearance."

When he got to the door, he turned back one last time. He looked at Lyse, who was now sitting cross-legged in the center of the massive bed, her small frame swallowed by the expensive linens. She looked fragile, yet there was a spark of determination in her eyes as she flipped open the cover of the folder.

Levi felt a warmth bloom through his entire body at the sight of her. Despite the circumstances, despite the gunfire and the grief, seeing her looking at home in his bed again was a sight he had hungered for every day she was gone. He realized in that moment that he missed this more than he had even dared to admit to himself, the quiet intimacy of sharing a space, the way she made the cold house feel alive.

Lyse insisted that she was done with him. She insisted that the marriage was a relic of the past. But as Levi watched her, he made a silent, iron-clad vow. He was going to make it his life’s mission to do everything in his power to protect her, to dismantle her enemies, and to earn back every ounce of the trust he had squandered. He would prove to her that he was the only one who could truly stand by her side.

"You will be mine again," he swore softly to the empty hallway before closing the door and leaving her to the secrets of the dead.