Billionaire's Regret: Losing Me And Our Son - Chapter 286: Chapter 286

"Why?" I blurted out in confusion.
My first instinct was that he must be unhappy with something in tonight's plans.
York's shadowy and unreadable gaze lingered on me. After a long, heavy pause, his familiar smile finally returned.
York quipped with a wry smile, "Won't we be working around the clock after this?"
With that, he turned and strode into the villa without a backward glance.
I let out a long sigh of relief and thought, 'So he was just teasing me. Whatever."
I shook my head and started the car to head home.
After becoming the CEO of Maple Media, my life became a whirlwind of work and continuous learning.
Most days, I left at sunrise and didn't get home until late at night.
After barely making it through such a hectic week, I was really looking forward to finally getting a proper two-day rest at home this weekend.
After work on Friday, to my surprise, I got a call from Jess Bird.
Jess's excited voice came through the phone. "Natalia, could you do me a favor?"
I hesitated for a moment and asked, "What kind of favor?"
"I want to propose to Raelynn," Jess told me.
I was both surprised and delighted. Jess and Raelynn Novak had been dating for a whole year now.
Raelynn had established herself professionally and was recently promoted to director at Madden Group.
Though we met less frequently, we still stayed in touch online, sharing life updates.
Jess treated Raelynn wonderfully, and seeing how happy she was now truly warmed my heart.
I agreed without hesitation. "What can I do to help?"
"I want to surprise Raelynn with a proposal," Jess said while laying out every detail of his plan, "I need your help to get her out and bring her to the spot I've picked. It's happening tomorrow."
As Jess's close friend, Quinn was naturally invited to be part of the proposal.
Early Saturday morning, I called up Raelynn and asked if she wanted to go sing at a karaoke bar with me that evening.
"Just the two of us?" Raelynn murmured, her voice still thick with sleep.
I quickly made up an excuse and said firmly, "Yeah, just us two. I've been feeling kinda down lately and really need someone to talk to."
Raelynn jolted awake, her voice laced with concern. "Nat, what's wrong? Is Clarissa up to her old tricks again?"
Her sudden barrage of detailed questions left me momentarily speechless.
"Not exactly... It's complicated to explain over the phone. Let's talk about it tonight!" I deflected, then quickly added, "Oh, and dress to impress! We'll take some cute selfies together."
"Sure!" Raelynn agreed without hesitation.
That afternoon, Quinn left early to meet up with Jess.
As evening fell, I changed into my outfit and drove to pick up Raelynn.
Seeing how beautifully Raelynn was dressed, I felt relieved and whisked her straight to the karaoke bar.
Raelynn scanned the spacious private room and quipped, "Just the two of us? Isn't this place ridiculously huge?"
"I booked last minute. This VIP suite was all they had left," I quickly came up with an excuse.
Raelynn shot me a skeptical look as she sat down. "Nat, you said on the phone you were feeling down. What's really going on?"
I was really bad at lying. I knew that one lie would always snowball into a dozen more just to keep up appearances. So I decided to change the topic. "Let's sing a few songs first."
I picked a few popular songs at random, picked up the mic, and stole a glance at my phone to check the time.
I thought anxiously, 'Jess and the others should be here any minute now, right? If they don't show up soon, I'm totally going to get caught in my own lie.'
"Nat, you've been acting kinda off today..." Raelynn said, her suspicion growing.
Just then, a knock came at the private room door.