THE BILLIONARIA’S DANGEROUS DEAL

Chapter 3

Samantha POV

For weeks, I was treated like Vanessa’s personal servant. I brought her meals, gave her medication, made her tea exactly the way she liked it, and helped her dress whenever she claimed she was too weak to do it herself. Strangely, her arms were always too weak whenever Xavier was around to see it. The moment his footsteps faded down the hall, her weakness went with him.

I endured it and kept hoping Xavier would eventually see what she was doing.

He never did. Instead, he became more protective of her with every passing day, and continued sleeping with me whenever he wanted — as if I were still his wife in every way that was convenient to him, and nothing more.

Then came the Cole enterprise annual gala. It was one of the biggest event on the company's calender

Every business partner Cole Enterprises had ever courted was there — celebrities, politicians, investors, everyone who mattered in the city.

Vanessa's hand rested comfortably around Xavier's arm. She leaned toward him, whispering something that made him smile.

Smile. I couldn't remember ever seeing Xavier smile like that even once.

A server pressed another tray into my hands . “Take these.” I nodded.

My arms were beginning to ache. The tray suddenly felt much heavier than it should have. One guest after another took a glass without bothering to look at me. My hands are shaking by the time I reach Xavier and Vanessa.

“Champagne?” I ask, because I don’t know what else there is to say.

Vanessa turns to take a glass, still mid-laugh at something Xavier said, and my hand slips.

The glass tipped before I could catch it. Champagne ran down the front of her dress in one long, dark stripe, and for one terrible second the entire circle around us went quiet enough that I could hear my own heartbeat over the orchestra.

“Oh my God.” Vanessa looked down at the stain spreading across silk, then up at me.

“I'm so sorry”.

“You ruined a four-thousand-dollar dress.”

Then she stepped closer until only I could hear her.

“You've already taken enough from me, don't you think?”

I didn't understand what she meant. Not before her hand cracked across my face hard enough to snap my head sideways.

The slap rang out over the music. Gasps rippled through the crowd around us. My tray hit the marble floor and champagne glasses shattered in every direction, and I stood there with my ears ringing, cheek already burning. I turned to Xavier, silently begging him to say something, anything

He just stood there, jaw tight, eyes somewhere over Vanessa’s shoulder. He wasn’t going to defend me. Not tonight, and maybe not ever.

Instead, he picked up a clean napkin from a passing waiter. Then he handed it to Vanessa, not one word to me, not even a glance.

I slowly lifted a trembling hand.

When I pulled it away… There was blood. My teeth had cut the inside of my mouth.

“Interesting,” A deep, cold voice cut through the silence, every head in the circle turned at once.

A man stood a few steps away, having clearly seen the entire thing — tall, broad-shouldered, dark hair falling perfectly into place, his voice as calm and composed as his presence was commanding. He was, without doubt, the most striking man I had ever seen. More so, even, than Xavier.

Xavier's expression shifted the instant their eyes met.

“Your wife gets slapped in front of your own guests,” the stranger said, “and you don't even react. Interesting.”

The word wife landed in that ballroom like a dropped glass.

“Wife?”

“Did he say wife?”

“Xavier Cole is married?”

Xavier’s expression changed and anger was written all over face.

The stranger didn't spare him a glance. He crossed the small distance to me and cupped my face with startling gentleness. His eyes stayed on me, on the blood at the corner of my mouth. “Are you alright?”

“She’s fine,” Xavier said quickly. “She tripped, that’s all.”

“She didn't trip, I watched her, he pointed towards Vanessa, slapped her on the face in front of everyone in this room.” he said.

Vanessa’s smile faltered for the first time all night. “It was an accident. She ruined my dress—”

“With champagne,” he said. “Usually cleaned with a napkin, not a hand.”

Mrs. Cole pushed through the circle, her voice sharp enough to cut glass. “This is a family matter, Mr. Damian. I don't believe it concerns you.”

“It doesn't.” He rose, finally turning to face Xavier fully. “But I imagine it's about to become Cole Enterprises' concern, once tonight's photographs start circulating.”

“This is a private family matter, Damian,”Xavier said “Stay out of it.”

The questions came all at once, cameras firing in bursts.

“Mr. Cole, are you married?”

“Who is she?”

“How long has this been kept secret?”

Mrs. Cole grabbed Xavier's sleeve, trying to steer him away from the reporters closing in from every side.

I turned and walked for the terrace doors before anyone could photograph the tears finally breaking loose and stayed outside until the music died and the last of the cars had pulled out of the circular drive. When I finally came back in, the hallway was empty, my heels loud against marble that had gone silent.

I almost made it to the staircase.

“Samantha.”I turned. Xavier stood at the far end of the hallway.

“I want a divorce.” I said without a blink.

Xavier stared at me for a long moment, like he hadn't expected me to have anything left to say back to him.

Then his face twisted with rage.

“You ungrateful woman.”

I flinched, but I didn't look away.

“You should be thanking me,” he said. “I could have sent you to prison instead I gave you the Cole name.

A bitter laugh scraped its way out of my throat before I could stop it. “Prison.”

“Yes.”

“What's the difference, Xavier?” My voice cracked on his name. “You took my freedom either way. You took my dignity a piece at a time and called this marriage. You made me live in this house like hired help, and you let your family remind me every single day that I was nothing more than a woman you'd paid to carry your child.”

I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand.

“So tell me. What exactly is the difference between the prison you threatened me with, and the life you actually gave me instead?”

His jaw clenched. “You're being dramatic.”

“I want a divorce and I mean it,” I said, and something in his face went very still.

His mother's voice cut through the hallway before either of us could say anything else.

“Give her the papers.”

I hadn't even heard her approach. Xavier's father stepped out of the shadowed doorway behind her and set a folder down on the hall table between us.

“You had these prepared?”

“We've had them ready since the week you married my son,” his mother said, without a flicker of apology in her voice. “No one in this family ever expected you to stay.”

“Sign it,” Xavier said, his voice sounding cold “You're stripped of everything the marriage entitled you to. Pack your things from the boys quarters and get out of my sight for good.”