Married to the Billionaire Who Betrayed Me novel Chapter 11

Chapter 11 Hearing His Pathetic Alleyway Excuses

The black town car didn’t just park; it loomed in the mouth of the alley like a predator waiting for its prey to stop twitching. Rain

began to fall, fine and freezing, turning the silk of my shawl into a cold, wet rag that clung to my shivering skin. I didn’t get up. I stayed right there on the damp concrete, my knees pulled to my chest, watching the rear passenger door click open with a sound

that felt as final as a gavel.

Tristan stepped out. He had ditched his bowtie, and the top button of his shirt was undone, giving him the look of a man who had just finished a long day of destroying lives. He closed the door and walked toward me, his leather shoes clicking against the asphalt in a steady, rhythmic cadence that made my heart hammer against my ribs.He stopped a foot away. The white mist of his breath

clouded in the freezing air.

“Get up, Mina,” he said. There was no apology in his voice, only the same cold, commanding tone he used to dictate terms to a rival firm. “The pavement is freezing. Get in the car. The driver will take you home”.

I pushed myself off the wet ground, my legs shaking so hard I thought I might collapse again. The torn seam of my emerald dress brushed against my knee like a stinging reminder of my own stupidity. I stood facing him, chin up, even as the cold seeped into my

marrow.

Tristan reached out. His fingers moved toward my face, intended for the jagged cut Celeste’s diamond had left on my cheekbone.

I struck his hand away. The sound of my palm meeting his skin cracked through the alley like a gunshot. Tristan froze. A muscle jumped in his jaw, his fingers curling into a tight fist at his side.

“Do not touch me,” I warned, my voice raw and scraped hollow.

“You are bleeding, he observed, his gray eyes fixed on the red mark. “I will have a doctor meet us at the apartment. We need to get

that cleaned”.

A bitter, broken laugh escaped me. “Cleaned? You want to clean the blood off my face in private after you let her put it there in

public?”.

“Mina-“.

“You stood there,” I interrupted, stepping into his space until the scent of his cologne-a scent that used to mean home-made me want to gag. “You stood ten feet away. She called me a whore. She slapped me. She humiliated me in front of five hundred people,

and you didn’t move”.

“It was a calculated escalation on her part,” Tristan said, his voice flat and professional. “Celeste knew the cameras were watching. If I intervened, if I pulled her away from you, the press would paint it as a rift between the families. The merger would stall”.

I stared at him, searching for the man I’d married in that sterile courthouse. I found nothing but a CEO protecting his stock price. “Calculated escalation, I echoed. The words tasted like poison. “That’s what I am to you now? A business variable?”.

“This is the reality of my world!” Tristan fired back, a crack finally appearing in his mask. “The Whitmore capital secures our

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Chapter 11 Hearing His Pathetic Alleyway Excuses

European expansion. Without it, the Johnston Group loses billions. My grandmother would strip me of my position. I cannot throw away four generations of legacy over a scene at a party”.

“I am your wife’.The words hung in the air between us, heavy and desperate. Tristan closed his eyes for a heartbeat.

And I asked you for time,” he said. “I asked you to stay out of the public eye. You broke the agreement, Mina. You walked into that ballroom knowing the cameras were there”.

“You promised to announce us tonight I screamed, the rain mixing with the dried blood on my skin. “You told me the silence

would end!”.

“Plans change,” he said, stepping closer until he cast me in a long, dark shadow. “The market shifted. I am trying to protect you. If the press discovers the marriage certificate now, they will brand you a gold digger. My grandmother will destroy you”.

I looked at him, and for the first time, the pain in my chest was sharper than the cut on my face. “Her slap did not break me, Tristan, I whispered. “Your silence did’.

Tristan’s jaw tightened.

“I waited for you to speak,” I continued, the tears finally starting to fall. “I thought, surely, this is the line. He will not let them strike his wife. But you looked at the reporters. You looked at your grandmother. And you chose them”.

I chose the only path that keeps my company intact,” Tristan said. “I can fix this. Let me handle Celeste. Give me six more months. I will dissolve the engagement quietly. Just get in the car.

Six more months of being a secret. Six more months of watching him hold another woman’s hand in the light.

“Will you go back inside right now?” I asked.

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