Married to the Billionaire Who Betrayed Me novel Chapter 18

Chapter 18 His Cold Handler Finds Me

I looked down at my hands. The dried blood from the cut on my cheek flaked onto my knuckles.

“No,” I said. The hollow emptiness in my chest expanded. “I am alone.”

Dr. Vargas sighed. “I will have the nurse bring you some water and your discharge papers. Please take this seriously. Your body

cannot handle more panic.”

He stood up and left the cubicle. The nurse handed me a small square of glossy paper before she followed him out.

I held the printed picture of the ultrasound in my hands. My thumbs traced the edges of the dark circle. Inside me, a tiny heart beat

in the dark. A piece of me. A piece of him.

This changes everything.

I stared at the image. The Johnston family prized legacy above all else. Evelyn Johnston controlled her grandson with the promise of inheritance, demanding he secure the family line with a proper pedigree. Celeste Whitmore offered capital, but I offered blood. I

carried the next Johnston heir.

If I sent this picture to Tristan right now, he would cancel the merger. He would break the engagement to Celeste. He would rush to this hospital, drop to his knees, and beg for my forgiveness. He would put the platinum ring back on my finger. The media would spin a new story. The hidden affair would transform into a tragic romance. I would not be the discarded mistress. I would be the

mother of his child.

I reached for my phone resting on the plastic tray table. The screen lit up. The keypad appeared.

I just needed to press his name. One button. One picture. It would save my marriage. It would save me from the poverty and the public shame waiting for me outside these doors.

My thumb hovered over the glass screen.

Then, the memory of the ballroom hit me.

I saw Celeste’s hand swinging toward my face. I felt the sharp edge of the diamond slicing my skin. I heard the high-society daughters laughing. And I saw Tristan standing there, his hands resting at his sides, his gray eyes cold and empty. He watched them destroy me. He watched them brand me a whore. He sent his head of security to drop off a credit card, treating me like a liability to

be paid off and hidden in a tower.

He did not love me. He loved his power.

A wave of revulsion washed over me. The phone dropped from my hand, clattering onto the tray.

I hated myself.

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Chapter 18 His Cold Handler Finds Me

The self-loathing burned hotter than any anger I felt toward Celeste or Tristan. How could I think about using my own child as’à

bargaining chip? How could I consider using an innocent life to trap a man who treated me like garbage?

If I told Tristan about the baby, he would not choose me. He would choose the heir.

The realization hit me. Tristan and Evelyn Johnston would never allow an unpedigreed woman with a ruined reputation to raise the future CEO of their company. They would lock me in the Azure Tower. They would hire an army of corporate lawyers. They would take my child the moment it took its first breath and hand it to Celeste to raise as her own. They would erase me completely.

reducing me to an incubator for their legacy.

This baby was not a lifeline. It was a death sentence.

I grabbed the ultrasound picture and shoved it deep into the pocket of my sweatpants. I reached over and pulled the IV tape from my skin, sliding the needle out of my vein. A small drop of blood welled up on my arm, but I ignored it. I swung my legs over the side of the bed. My bare feet hit the freezing linoleum floor.

I had to leave. I could not return to my apartment. Mateo knew where I lived. The press knew where I lived. I had to disappear tonight, before the sun rose, before anyone connected my medical records to the Johnston empire.

I grabbed my ruined coat from the plastic chair. I wrapped it around my shoulders. The hospital corridor outside the curtain remained quiet. I just needed to reach the exit, hail a taxi, go to the train station, and buy a ticket to a city where no one knew my

name.

I pushed the heavy blue curtain aside.

A woman stood in the hallway, blocking my path.

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