The Billionaire's Discarded Bride

Bella pov  I stood in the center of my bedroom, surrounded by luxury I'd never wanted and could no longer keep. The clock on the nightstand read 11:47 PM. Thirteen minutes left. My hands moved mechanically, folding clothes into the single suitcase I'd brought here a few months ago. Everything else-the designer dresses Caleb's stylist had ordered, the jewelry he'd given me for appearances, the expensive perfumes and shoes I left untouched. I wanted nothing from him. Nothing that would remind me I'd been stupid enough to hope. A silk blouse slipped from my trembling fingers. I picked it up, tried to fold it again, but my hands wouldn't cooperate. They just shook and shook until I dropped the blouse entirely and pressed my palms against my eyes. Don't cry. Don't waste tears on them. But the tears came anyway, hot and relentless, streaming down my face as I stood there in my wedding dress that I hadn't even thought to change out of. I probably looked insane, packing a suitcase in full bridal attire, mascara streaking down my cheeks. My phone buzzed on the bed. I grabbed it with desperate hope-maybe Caleb had realized his mistake, maybe he was calling to apologize, to tell me he'd been wrong. Unknown number with a text message that made my blood freeze.Leave quietly and I'll wire you $50,000. Make a scene and you get nothing. – CB Fifty thousand dollars. The price of my silence, my dignity, my unborn child's father. I stared at the message until the words blurred together, then deleted it without responding. I didn't want his money. I wanted. What? What had I wanted? For him to love me? To wake up one day and see me as more than an obligation? To choose me over my sister, my parents, his precious reputation? I'd been a fool from the start. The clock read 11:52. Eight minutes. I zipped the suitcase closed, grabbed my purse, and took one last look around the room that had never felt like mine. The bed I'd slept in alone every night. The window seat where I'd read to pass the endless empty hours. The bathroom where I'd taken that pregnancy test, my hands shaking just like they were shaking now. Two weeks. That's all the time my baby has existed in this house, this family, this life. And already, they wanted it gone. "Not happening," I whispered, my hand moving to my stomach. "You're mine. We're leaving, and we're never coming back." I changed quickly into jeans and a sweater, leaving the wedding dress crumpled on the floor like a corpse. Let them find it, let it remind them what they'd done. 11:56. I opened my bedroom door slowly, listening. The house was quiet, but I knew better than to assume I was alone. My father had probably stationed someone to make sure I left, to ensure I didn't steal the silver on my way out. The hallway stretched before me, dimly lit by wall sconces that cast shadows in every corner. I picked up my suitcase, surprised by how light it was, how little I'd accumulated in a few months of staying with a billionaire. My entire life fits in one bag.I made it to the main staircase before I heard voices drifting up from the foyer. I pressed myself against the wall, hidden in shadow, and listened. "She's pathetic." Jade's voice, bright with victory. "Did you see her face when Caleb told her to get rid of it? I thought she might actually faint." "You played it perfectly, sweetheart." That was my mother, warm and approving in a way she'd never been with me. "Caleb believes every word we told him about her. He thinks she's been unstable for months." "The pregnancy claim was a nice touch on her part, though." My father's laugh was cold. "Almost made me believe her for a second. But Caleb saw through it." "Of course he did." Jade sounded smug. "He's brilliant. And once Bella's gone, once we finalize the divorce quietly, he and I can finally be together the way we should've been from the start." My stomach turned. They'd planned this. All of it. Not just tonight, but for months. The lies they'd told Caleb about me, the manipulation, the perfectly timed seduction-it had all been orchestrated to get me out of the way, all because his grandmother chose me over her for him. "Where is she now?" my mother asked. "It's almost midnight." "Probably still packing." My father checked his watch. "If she's not out in four minutes, I'm sending security up." I couldn't listen anymore. Couldn't stand there while they celebrated destroying my life. I moved as quietly as I could, taking the servants' staircase at the back of the house, the one I'd discovered during my first week here when I'd been too invisible for anyone to notice me exploring. The stairs led to a side door near the kitchen. I slipped through it into the cold November night, my breath pluming in the air as I hurried across the grounds toward the service gate. Rain started to fall, light at first, then harder, soaking through my sweater in seconds. I didn't care. I kept walking, my suitcase banging against my leg, my lungs burning from the cold and the tears I couldn't stop. The gate loomed ahead, wrought iron and imposing. I punched in the code-Caleb's birthday, because of course he was that predictable-and it swung open with a creak that sounded like a death knell. I stepped through and kept walking, down the long driveway lined with trees, toward the main road. Behind me, the Black estate blazed with lights, warm and beautiful and forever closed to me. A car passed, its headlights illuminating me for a moment-a girl in a soaked sweater, dragging a suitcase, crying in the rain like some tragic movie character but the car didn't stop. Why would it? I was nobody. I'd always been nobody.