Married to the Billionaire Who Betrayed Me novel Chapter 47

Chapter 47 A Mother Shows Her Teeth

Eduardo shifted his stance. He raised his wooden cane. His knuckles strained against the polished wood. 1 gripped the metal bed

rail. I braced for Mateo Castillo. I braced for the end.

The heavy door swung open.

Dr. Vargas walked into the room. Two men in unmarked dark scrubs flanked him. They pushed a sleek, mobile transit incubator. The

machine hummed with internal battery power.

My lungs pulled in air. The crushing panic retreated.

“The transport unit is ready,” Dr. Vargas stated. He locked the wheels of the device next to the bassinet. “We possess a ten-minute gap in the security feed. We must move.”

The men worked in silence. They transferred Elias. They disconnected the wall monitors and hooked the delicate wires to the mobile battery. My son slept through the motion.

Eduardo turned to me. “Can you walk?”

The pain in my pelvis throbbed. I swung my legs over the edge of the mattress. My bare feet touched the cold linoleum. I stood. Fire laced through my nerves. I clamped my jaw shut. I nodded.

We exited the room. The corridors stretched empty and quiet. Dr. Vargas led us down a back stairwell. Each step sent a shockwave of pain up my spine. I gripped the handrail. I refused to slow the group.

We reached the loading dock. A nondescript white van idled in the shadows. The rear doors sat open. The men loaded the incubator. Eduardo guided me into the passenger seat.

The van accelerated into the freezing night. The hospital vanished behind us. We escaped the trap.

Six months faded into the past.

The winter thawed. The brutal coastal freeze surrendered to a humid summer. Elias grew strong. The fragile skin turned healthy and bright. His lungs developed. He breathed without machines. He watched the world with steel-gray eyes. Those eyes mirrored his father. They served as a daily reminder of the betrayal I survived.

We lived in a small, secured house on the outskirts of Port Sterling. Eduardo arranged the lease under a dummy corporation. A high concrete wall surrounded the property. A security system monitored every window. I hired a private nanny named Lucia Valdez, a distant, trusted relative of Eduardo.

I left Elias with Lucia each morning. I drove to the Valdez Elegance warehouse.

The glass management office became my sanctuary. I covered the walls with whiteboards. I mapped supply chains. I tracked global

shipping indices

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Chapter 47 A Mother Shows Her Teeth

I pushed my limits. I doubled my hours. A mother possessing a vulnerable child requires a fortress of capital. Money offered the

only true shield against men like Tristan Johnston. I needed to understand the mechanics of wealth.

Stacks of financial textbooks replaced the routing logs on my desk. I studied venture capital structures. I memorized the frameworks

of leveraged buyouts. I consumed the terminology of the elite.

Knowledge sharpened my instincts.

A knock sounded on my office door.

I looked up from a thick prospectus. Dominic Kensington stood on the other side of the glass. He owned the primary packaging manufacturer for our cosmetics lines. He wore an expensive suit and a smug expression.

“Come in,” I instructed.

Dominic opened the door and took the leather chair opposite my desk. He dropped a revised contract onto the glass surface.

“Good morning, Minerva, Dominic began. He crossed his legs. “I am submitting the new quarterly rates. Raw material costs spiked. The resin for your custom bottles is scarce. We are implementing an eight percent price increase.”

I picked up the contract. I scanned the figures. I set the paper down.

“The global resin index dropped two percent last month, I stated. I kept my voice flat. “Your supplier in the southern district secured a massive surplus. Your raw material costs decreased.

Dominic’s smug expression faltered. He uncrossed his legs. The logistics of transport-

“Your transport costs remained stagnant, I interrupted. I pulled a printed spreadsheet from my drawer. I slid the paper across the desk. “I track your fuel expenditures. I track your payroll. You reduced your workforce by ten percent last quarter. Your operational overhead dropped. You are attempting to inflate your margins to cover a bad investment you made in a failing tech startup three weeks ago. You want Valdez Elegance to subsidize your mistake.”

A flush of red crept up Dominic’s neck. He stared at the spreadsheet. I laid bare his entire financial situation.

“This is confidential information,” Dominic hissed. His eyes darted around the room. “You possess no legal right to access my

internal audits.”

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