The Billionaire Ex-Wife and the Beggar He Became novel Chapter 117

"Tiana, Daddy's busy at work right now. I'll come home early today to be with you, okay?" Julian had never been good at comforting children, but hearing his daughter's sobs on the other end of the phone filled him with a sudden pang of guilt.

It was the guilt of having taken her mother away from her.

"I want Mommy to come back! I want Mommy! I want her right now!" Tiana's cries were sharp and panicked, her tiny voice breaking under the weight of her desperation.

After a week in the hospital, all of Tiana's stubborn pride had melted away.

She finally told her father the deepest wish in her heart. "Daddy, I want to see Mommy every day. I want her to hold me while I fall asleep. I miss the way she smells. I want to eat the food she makes. I want her to come back, just like before, to cuddle me every night and tell me stories. When I had a fever, Mommy would hold me forever. I don't want Mommy to hold other kids. I want her to hold me…"

Tiana, usually so defiant, let every bit of pretense crumble as she sobbed.

She no longer blamed her mother for refusing to cook for Miss Felly, or for not helping Victor when he was sick. Now she understood that her mother never owed any of them anything.

It would be enough if her mother only loved her.

She remembered the day in the ER when her father and Miss Felly had left her all alone at the hospital. She'd been so scared she couldn't even cry. Instead, she'd called her mother from the hospital phone. Her mom had rushed to her side, but then, when her father came back for her, she left with him to the private wing—and her mother had spent the whole night waiting outside their house, too worried to leave. Tiana had been secretly touched by that, and her heart ached for her mother.

But she was stubborn.

She was proud.

She refused to apologize to her mother.

Back then, she'd still thought Miss Felly was a thousand times better than her own mom.

So she'd forced her mother back into the house as a housekeeper, making her cook and clean for Dad, for herself, and for Miss Felly.

She'd seen the heartbreak and despair in her mother's eyes, felt it in the way she turned to leave. In that moment, Tiana had been crushed by regret.

But even then, her pride wouldn't let her say sorry.

She'd grown used to never bowing her head to her mother.

Used to pushing her around.

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