Married to the Billionaire Who Betrayed Me novel Chapter 37

Chapter 37 Escaping His Ruthless Security

The hours dragged. The floor workers completed their shifts and went home. The massive steel bays rolled shut. The warehouse

settled into a deep, echoing silence.

I needed to return to my apartment.

The rusted coffee can hidden beneath the floorboards of Room 402 held my survival. It held two weeks of hoarded wages. I needed that cash. The prenatal vitamins cost money. The upcoming doctor appointments required upfront payment. I could not sleep in the

warehouse forever.

I waited until midnight. I pulled the hood of my thick coat over my head. I locked the warehouse doors behind me and stepped into

the biting coastal wind.

Port Sterling offered a brutal winter landscape. Freezing rain lashed against the cracked pavement. I kept to the shadows. I avoided the illuminated bus stops and walked the two miles to my neighborhood. I navigated the narrow alleys, my canvas shoes soaking through with icy water. My lower back ached with a relentless, throbbing pressure.

I reached the end of the industrial block. My run-down brick apartment building stood across the street, squeezed next to the neon

glow of a closed liquor store.

I stopped. I pressed my back against the damp brick wall of the alley.

A sleek, black SUV idled by the curb directly in front of the apartment lobby.

Port Sterling did not host vehicles with custom tinted windows and reinforced steel frames. That machine belonged to the capital. It belonged to the elite.

My breath caught in my throat. I pulled deeper into the darkness.

The rear passenger door of the SUV opened.

A man stepped onto the wet pavement. He wore a dark trench coat over a tailored charcoal suit. The neon light from the liquor store illuminated the sharp angles of his face and the faint white line of a scar near his jaw.

Mateo Castillo.

He stood in the freezing rain. He did not flinch against the cold. He looked up at the brick facade of the building. His gaze tracked up to the fourth floor. He stared directly at the dark window of Room 402.

He found me. Tristan’s empire reached across three hundred miles of coastline and pinpointed my exact location. They tracked the rental agreement. They tracked my maiden name.

Mateo reached into his trench coat. He pulled out a sleek mobile phone. He pressed a button and lifted the device to his ear.

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Chapter 37 Escaping His Ruthless Security

The street was dead silent. The wind carried the sound of his voice across the narrow expanse of asphalt.

Mr. Johnston, Mateo said.

The name sent a shock of pure ice through my veins. Tristan was on the other end of the line.

I held my breath. I strained to hear the words.

“The landlord identified the photograph, Mateo reported. His tone remained flat and absolute. “She rents a room on the fourth floor. The space is currently empty. She has not returned from her daily routine.”

Mateo paused. He listened to the billionaire speak. I imagined Tristan sitting in his penthouse, overlooking a glittering city, giving orders to cage his missing wife.

“Yes, sir. I understand, Mateo responded. “We will maintain absolute discretion. We will not involve local authorities. The Whitmore family remains unaware of the operation. We established a perimeter around the building. We will wait for her to return. We will secure her and bring her back to the Azure Tower before dawn.”

The Azure Tower.

The words echoed in my skull. Tristan planned to drag me back to the golden cage. He intended to lock me inside that luxury prison. He wanted to keep me hidden from the press, hidden from Celeste, and hidden from the world. I would become a ghost haunting a high-rise, existing only when he possessed the free time to visit.

I placed a trembling hand over my lower stomach.

If Mateo dragged me into that SUV tonight, my child belonged to the Johnston Group. Tristan would discover the pregnancy. Evelyn Johnston would summon her army of corporate lawyers. They would strip me of my maternal rights the moment the baby took its first breath. They would hand my child to Celeste Whitmore to raise as the perfect, pedigreed heir. They would erase my existence

completely.

The realization burned through the terror. A rage ignited in my chest.

I looked at the brick building across the street. Room 402 held my meager savings. It held my warm blanket. It held the only shelter I possessed in this frozen city.

I surrendered it all.

I would sleep on the concrete floor of the warehouse. I would eat saltine crackers for another month. I would freeze before I let Tristan Johnston put his hands on my child.

I took a slow step backward. I needed to retreat deeper into the alley. I needed to return to Valdez Elegance and lock the steel

doors.

My canvas shoe slid on the slick pavement.

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Chapter 37 Escaping His Ruthless Security

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