Ch. The Campus Queen’s Billionaire Husband Is My Secret Spouse” 27 The Campus Queen’s Billionaire Husband Is My Secret Spouse” 27

Chapter 27 

A month after the awards ceremony, Director Harrison returned my jade ring. 

The hairline fractures were filled with fine gold thread, winding across the emerald surface like a bolt of lightning frozen in stone. 

It looked different. 

But it was still my mother’s ring. 

I fastened it around my finger. 

For the first time in twelve years, it was back where it belonged. 

The weight was exactly the same as I remembered. 

That night, Pierce came to the lab to pick me up. 

It was the first time in three years of marriage he’d ever done that. 

His car was parked at the gate. He was leaning against the door, waiting. 

He walked over the moment I stepped out. 

“Eleanor, this is for you.” 

He handed me a manila envelope. 

I opened it. Two things were inside. 

A contract. The cover read: [Summit Group Equity Transfer Agreement]. 

Pierce had transferred thirty percent of the Summit Group’s shares into my name. 

“Pierce, what is this?” 

“Your recognition. You helped me three years ago. I never gave you what I owed you.” 

“I don’t need-” 

୮ 

“Whether you need it is your business. Whether I give it is mine. This thirty percent isn’t a payment; it’s what you were entitled to from the start.” 

I tucked the envelope under my arm. 

“We’ll talk about this when I’ve had time to think.” 

“Fine. No rush.” 

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He pulled a second thing from his pocket. 

A photo. 

I glanced down at it. 

It was a shot of my parents when they were young. 

Not the one in my drawer. 

This one I’d never seen before. 

They were at the beach. Mom was standing on a jagged rock in a floral dress, and Dad was reaching out to catch her, terrified she’d fall. 

Both of them were laughing. 

“I had someone dig it out of the old archives at the institute. Your father took it right before he led the team out for those field tests in the south.” 

I took the photo. 

I turned it over. 

Dad’s handwriting. 

(She won’t let me call her beautiful. But she really is, today.] 

I pressed the photo against my chest. 

The moonlight washed over the sycamores outside the lab. 

The wind rustled through the leaves. 

The years I’d walked alone, the days without Mom and Dad-it all flooded back in that moment. 

It wasn’t a sense of bitterness. 

It was a sense of worth. 

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Chapter 27 

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