Sold to the ruthless billionaire Boss

Bella Hart thought today would be different. It was her twenty-first birthday. She had spent two weeks planning it. Not for a party. She couldn't afford a party. But for Jason. Jason Miller. Her boyfriend of three years. The boy who promised he would marry her and help her sick mother. She had booked a table at La Rosa. La Rosa was expensive. The kind of place where they give you water in a glass bottle and the chairs are too soft. But Bella wanted one good memory. Just one. She wore her only good dress. White. A little tight at the waist now. Bought two years ago for interviews. She had washed it last night and ironed it three times. Her long brown hair was in a messy ponytail. Because her hands were shaking too much to do anything else. Her only jewelry was her mother's old locket. Small. Silver. Dented. She never took it off. She touched it now. It was cold against her skin. The small birthday cake sat in front of her. Vanilla. One candle. She bought it with her waitress tips. The waiters kept looking at her with pity. She had been sitting alone for forty-seven minutes. Jason was late. He finally walked in. Black shirt, cheap tie, hair gelled back. He didn't smile when he saw her. He didn't say happy birthday. Bella stood up so fast her chair scraped. "Jason! You came." He didn't sit. He stood there by the table, fixing his cheap tie. That was his habit. Whenever Jason lied, he fixed that tie. "Bella, sit down. Let's not make this hard," he said. Bella's hand went straight to her lower lip. She bit it. That was her habit when she was scared. "What do you mean?" Jason looked around like he was embarrassed to be seen with her. "I met someone else." The air left Bella's lungs. "What?" "Her name is Chloe. Chloe Beaumont." "Her father owns half of the buildings on the Upper East Side." "Bella, be realistic." "You work as a waitress at a small cafe." "You live in that one-room apartment with your sick mother who never gets better." "I need to think about my future." "I can't build a future with you." Bella felt the whole restaurant go quiet. A woman at the next table was staring openly. The waiter pretended to clean a glass. She clutched her locket. Tight. So tight her knuckles turned white. "On my birthday?" Her voice cracked. "Jason, it's my birthday. You are breaking up with me on my birthday? In this place?" "Don't be dramatic," he said, and that cold tone was new. This was not the Jason who used to share a sandwich with her on the bus. This was someone else. "You're a sweet girl, Bella. But sweet doesn't pay rent." "Sweet doesn't buy you a house." "Chloe can give me connections. You can only give me problems." Bella had heard enough. Three years. Three years she waited while he was jobless. Three years she gave him her savings. And now he called her a problem. Tears burned her eyes but she refused to let them fall here. She grabbed her glass of red wine. She wanted to throw it at his face. She wanted him to feel just one second of the shame she felt. She threw. She missed. Her hand was shaking too much. The wine flew past Jason's shoulder, across the narrow aisle, and landed directly on a man who had just stood up from his table. The restaurant gasped. Time stopped. The red wine spread like blood across a crisp white shirt and a black suit jacket that probably cost more than Bella's entire life. Bella froze, hand over her mouth. The man slowly turned around. He was tall. So tall Bella had to tilt her head back to see his face. Maybe twenty-nine, black hair perfectly cut, grey eyes that looked like they had never smiled in their life. His suit was black, expensive, and now ruined. He wasn't looking at her at first. He was looking at his watch. A silver Rolex. Like she was wasting his valuable seconds. Then his eyes dropped to his shirt. His jaw tightened. A muscle jumped in his cheek. He lifted his left hand and adjusted his silver cufflinks. Once. Twice. Slowly. Everyone in La Rosa knew that gesture. The manager, who had been hiding, suddenly ran over bowing. "Mr. Knight! Mr. Knight! I am so sorry! This girl—" Alexander Knight. Bella knew that name. Everyone in the city who watched business news knew that name. Alexander Knight, CEO of Knight Empire. The youngest billionaire in the country. Known for being arrogant, ruthless, and for never losing. He bought companies for fun. He fired people without blinking. He hated being touched, hated noise, hated people making scenes. And Bella had just poured wine on him. Jason saw who it was and took a step back. He fixed his cheap tie again, fast, nervous. "Sir, I... I don't know her—" "Jason!" Bella screamed. "You coward!" Jason didn't look at her. He turned and walked out of La Rosa. He walked out fast, pushing the door, leaving Bella alone with the wine, the cake, and the billionaire. Bella's lip was bleeding now because she was biting it too hard. She clutched her locket with both hands like it could save her. "I'm sorry," she whispered. Her voice was gone. "I'm so sorry sir, I didn't mean— I was aiming for my— for him— I will wash it. I will work. I can work for you, I can clean your house, I can— I don't have money but—" "I don't need a cleaner," Alexander Knight said. His voice was low. Cold. It made the hairs on Bella's arms stand up. He took a step closer. He smelled like expensive cologne and power. Bella could see his cufflinks up close. Silver, with a K engraved. "You just ruined a ten-thousand-dollar suit. Custom made. From Milan." He said it like he was reading a death sentence. Bella felt her knees go soft. Ten thousand dollars. Her mother needed two thousand dollars for surgery tomorrow or the hospital said they would stop treatment. She had twenty dollars in her account. Not two thousand. "I... I can't pay," she said honestly. Tears finally fell. "I can't pay." His assistant behind him, a man in glasses, whispered, "Sir, shall I call security?" Alexander didn't answer him. He kept looking at Bella. At her messy ponytail, at her white dress that was too tight, at her hands that wouldn't stop shaking, at her lower lip caught between her teeth, at the old silver locket she was holding like a lifeline. Something flickered in his grey eyes. Annoyance, but something else too. "Good," he said quietly. "Very good." His assistant flinched. Bella learned later that when Alexander said "Good. Very good" in that cold tone, it meant he was extremely angry. "You can't pay with money, Bella Hart," he said. He had seen her name tag from her cafe uniform peeking out of her bag. "So you will pay with something else." He pulled a black business card from his wallet. It was thick, matte, with only his name and a number embossed in silver. He didn't hand it to her. He dropped it onto her table, right next to her small, melting vanilla birthday cake with one sad candle. "My office. Knight Tower, 32nd floor. Tomorrow, nine AM. Don't be late." "What... what for?" Bella stammered, clutching the card. He adjusted his cufflinks one more time. "You owe me a debt. I always collect my debts." He turned and walked away. He didn't wait for an answer. The doors of La Rosa opened before he touched them. Two bodyguards appeared out of nowhere and followed him. The manager kept bowing until he was gone. Bella stood alone in the middle of the restaurant. Everyone was staring. Her birthday cake had melted. The candle had fallen into the icing. Her boyfriend had left her for a rich girl. And she now owed ten thousand dollars to the most arrogant, most dangerous billionaire in the city. Her phone rang. Loud in the silence. She wiped her eyes and answered. "Miss Hart?" It was Nurse Anna from St. Mary's Hospital. "It's your mother. Her condition worsened tonight." "Doctor says we need to do the surgery first thing tomorrow morning." "You must bring the two thousand dollars deposit by eight AM, or we cannot proceed. I'm sorry." The line cut. Bella stood there, the phone shaking in her hand. Eight AM tomorrow. She needed two thousand dollars by eight AM. She had nothing. No one. Jason was gone. Her eyes fell back on the black card on the table. ALEXANDER KNIGHT - CEO, KNIGHT EMPIRE. She bit her lower lip so hard she tasted blood. She pressed her mother's locket against her chest. She had no choice at all. She picked up the card.