Betrayed By The Billionaire

97

"Chloe?" Lyra whispered, her voice a cocktail of confusion and worry as she glanced between her friend and the man standing outside.

Chloe remained frozen, staring down at the sleeping Liam Jr. in her lap. Her expression was a mask of cold indifference, but beneath the surface, her pulse was racing.

Liam Martin stood by the car door, his eyes fixed on Chloe’s profile. Every second of her silence felt like a needle pressing into his heart. He held up her smartphone, his voice straining for a composure he clearly didn't possess. "Chloe, I brought your phone back. Just... step out for a moment."

Chloe didn't even blink. At that moment, the gates of the Nicholas estate swung open. "Drive in," she commanded the chauffeur, her voice devoid of emotion. "Ignore him."

"Chloe!" Liam shouted her name, the sound laced with a raw, desperate urgency as the car began to roll away.

Chloe’s chest tightened—a physical reaction she hated herself for—and she squeezed her eyes shut, trying to drown out the sound of his voice. He shouldn't have come, she thought bitterly. A rational man would have left the phone with a guard. This isn't closure; it's a humiliation for both of us.

But Liam wasn't acting rationally. He jumped back into his car and trailed them through the gates. When both vehicles came to a halt in the courtyard, Liam was out of his seat before the engines had even cooled, standing there in his crisp white shirt, looking like the refined gentleman she had loved for six years—except for the storm behind his eyes.

Chloe sat in the backseat for a long time, unmoving.

"Chloe," Lyra said softly, "maybe you should just talk to him. Avoiding it won't kill the ghost. Go. I'll watch the boy."

Finally, Chloe carefully shifted the sleeping Liam Jr. onto the seat and stepped out. She walked a few paces away to a secluded corner of the garden. Liam followed, his eyes devouring the sight of her back. He felt a violent, primal urge to reach out and pull her into his arms, to crush her against his chest until they were one person again.

But when she stopped and spoke, her words were like ice water. "You said you had things to say. Say them."

"Your family went through a crisis," Liam started, his voice cracking as he finally found his words. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Chloe didn't turn around. "My family’s affairs are our own. I don't make a habit of bothering 'others' with my problems."

Tell him? She thought of the wedding day where he left her at the altar, of how he ignored her father’s accident while he was busy coddling Sara. He hadn't visited the hospital once. He had been too consumed by his resentment over Charles Bishop supposedly "imprisoning" Sara for three months. If he had cared even a fraction for the Bishops, he wouldn't have been so blissfully ignorant of their downfall.

"Bothering others?" Liam’s voice rose, tinged with a sharp, wounded anger. "Is that what I am now? An 'other'? And your solution was to sell yourself to a stranger? To a man known to be a cold-blooded, sadistic demon?"

A stranger? An other? The words tasted like poison to him.

Chloe spun around then, her eyes flashing with a lethal, frigid light that made Liam flinch.

"Mr. Martin, watch your tongue," she snapped, her voice low and dangerous. "That 'cold-blooded demon' you’re talking about is my husband. And in my eyes, he’s far more decent than you. At least he isn't a double-dealer. He doesn't hide behind a mask of virtue while acting with utter hypocrisy."

Liam stood stunned, the word "husband" ringing in his ears like a death knell. He had come here to save her, but Chloe was standing in front of him, defending the man who had replaced him. Is Liam's regret enough to make him fight for her, or has Chloe truly found a "decency" in Xavier that Liam never possessed?

Vince is watching from the shadows of the entrance. Should Chloe end this before Xavier finds out she's talking to her ex-fiancé on Nicholas's property?

Wait... if Liam knows about the "demon," does he also know what happened to Nora and Cindy last night?