The Bastard Billionare I Married For Revenge

"I think Sabrina, that disgusting little parasite, is sleeping with my grandfather." Sabrina stopped dead, her fingers still wrapped around the handle of the half-open door. Suddenly she couldn't move. Just a few minutes ago, she'd come here determined to prove Nina wrong. Her best friend had called earlier, claiming she'd seen Richard drinking and making out with another woman. Sabrina hadn't believed a word of it. Richard would never do that. Then the man's familiar voice spoke again. "If she wasn't sleeping with my grandfather, there's no way a cold-hearted man like John Ashford would give the daughter of a maid the best of everything." A short laugh followed. "She's just John Ashford's little whore." The words hit her so hard she forgot how to breathe. It couldn't be Richard. But she knew that voice. Every note of it. Inside the room, a woman laughed. Through the narrow gap in the door, Sabrina caught sight of a woman sitting on Richard's lap, his arm draped around her waist, their bodies pressed close. "You're so cruel, Richard. She's your girlfriend, you know. Aren't you two having your engagement party next week?" "You know better than anyone, Mia. I've done my absolute best to pretend to be nice to her all this time." Sabrina bit her lip so hard she tasted copper. Pretend. The dinners. The good-morning texts. The bouquets that always, always arrived on time. Every one of them replaying at once, sudden and ugly, like a film reel someone had set on fire. Had all of it been a lie? "If I hadn't overheard my grandfather telling Sabrina he wanted her to become part of the Ashford family, I would've gotten rid of that parasite a long time ago. Just like I got rid of her mother." Sabrina's entire body tensed. Her mother? "What do you mean?" Mia asked. "Sarah Rosewood? Didn't the two of you fall from the third floor because she was trying to save you while you were drunk?" Richard laughed. "That's what I told everyone. But the truth is, that parasite of a maid overheard a conversation she never should've heard. I tried to push her off the third floor, and that b***h dragged me down with her. Broke my ribs and my arm because of that damn maid." Mia stroked his hair and kissed him. "Oh, my poor handsome man. Good thing that woman ended up in a coma." "Yeah. Lucky she landed underneath me. She took the worst of the impact." Richard smirked. Mia laughed. The floor tilted. Sabrina's legs nearly gave out beneath her. She gripped the doorframe so hard her knuckles went white, nausea climbing up her throat. Not an accident. He tried to push her. He tried to kill my mother. And for three years he'd sat beside that hospital bed. Held Sabrina's hand while she cried. Comforted her. Knowing. "So what are you going to do after you marry Sabrina?" Mia asked. "You're only marrying her to win your grandfather's favor and secure your position as heir, right?" "Of course. I'll get rid of her after she gives me a child." Sabrina clapped a hand over her mouth to keep the sound in. She had thought she was loved. A tool. That was all she'd ever been. Something to secure an inheritance. Something to please John Ashford. Something to carry an heir and then be discarded. Not a person. Never a person. "You are a terrible man, and that's exactly why I love you," Mia said. "Of course, honey. You're my best secretary." His gaze traveled over her body. "And definitely my hottest one." He kissed her again. That was the final blow. Sabrina couldn't watch another second. Her vision blurred. She took a step back, then another, the hallway swaying beneath her feet. By the time she turned, tears were already running down her cheeks. She walked blindly — past the private rooms, past the bar, past strangers laughing over cocktails. Nobody stopped her. Nobody noticed. To everyone else, she was just another woman crying. They had no idea her entire world had just ended. --------------------------------------------- Sabrina didn't know how she ended up in the deserted hallway, or how long she wandered before her legs gave out. One moment she was walking. The next she was on the floor, back against the wall, chest aching from how hard she was crying. Richard's voice wouldn't stop. Parasite. w***e. I tried to push her mother off the third floor. Over and over. Louder every time she tried to shove it away. "Mom..." The word cracked in her throat. She thought of her mother's hand in hers at the hospital, still and cool, the machines breathing for her in slow, patient rhythms. Three years of that. Three years of Sabrina begging her to open her eyes, never once knowing the man sitting beside her, murmuring comfort, was the reason she couldn't. Then the sadness just — stopped. Something else rushed in to fill the space where it had been. Hotter. Sharper. It stole the air right out of her lungs. Not grief. Rage. "You bastard." She wanted to storm back in, claw the smirk off his face, make him feel even a fraction of what he'd taken from her mother. From her. But what then? All she had was a conversation she'd overheard. Richard Ashford wasn't just anyone. He was an Ashford. No one would believe her over him — not without proof, and she had none. A voice came from the end of the hallway. "Hello, is everything okay? Why are you crying here, miss?" Sabrina lifted her head. Through blurred vision, she recognized him instantly. William Ashford. Richard's cousin. The man Richard hated most. "Sabrina Rosewood?" William walked over and crouched in front of her. "Hey, are you okay, Sab? Who hurt you?" She stared at him for several seconds, then let out a broken laugh — at herself, at the joke her life had become. "I'm sorry you had to see me like this, Young Master William." She took a shaky breath and looked him in the eye. "I just found out that your cousin is an asshole." Fresh tears rolled down her cheeks. "And a murderer."