CLAIMED BY THE BILLIONAIRE: The secret I kept in Paris

Chapter Four

I bought a ticket to Paris with the last of the savings Ken hadn't managed to touch, my hands shaking as I handed over my passport, and I didn't breathe until the plane wheels left the tarmac and New York became a small, flickering grid of lights beneath the clouds.

I spent the first few weeks in my parents' guest room, staring at the ceiling and trying to understand how my life had collapsed and rebuilt itself in the span of twenty-four hours, but the ache in my chest from Ken’s betrayal was slowly being replaced by a different kind of fear, a constant, nagging memory of the way Lugard had looked at me.

Two months later, I felt the first sign sign of pregnancy, and I sat on the cold tile floor with a plastic stick in my hand, watching two pink lines appear.

I called Estel, the only friend from my childhood who still lived nearby and the only person I could trust not to tell a soul that I was even back in France.

"Eva, you haven't been with Ken in months, we both know he was busy with Sarah long before you caught them, so whose is this?" Estel asked, her voice low as she gripped my shoulders and forced me to look at her, her eyes searching mine for an answer I was terrified to give out loud.

"It was one night, Estel, the night of the crash, the man who pulled me out of the car, he took me back to his place and I was so lost, so broken, and I just needed someone to hold me," I whispered, leaning my head against her shoulder.

"The billionaire? The one from the news who found you? Eva, if he finds out you are carrying his child, he will never let you go, a man like that doesn't share custody, he owns people," Estel said, her grip tightening on my arms as she led me toward her car so we could go to the clinic and get a blood test to be sure.

"That's why he can't know, he's obsessive, Estel, he told me I belonged to him before he even knew my last name, and if I stay in Paris, he will find me eventually, he has more money than God and he doesn't like to lose," I said, looking out the window as we drove through the familiar streets, feeling like a fugitive in my own hometown.

We sat in the sterile waiting room of the hospital. Estel held my hand the entire time, her thumb rubbing circles over my knuckles, but she didn't try to give me any false hope or tell me everything would be fine, because she knew exactly what kind of man I was running from.

"What are you going to do if the doctor confirms it? You can't just stay in your parents' spare room forever, and you know Ken is still looking for you to finalize whatever fraud he’s pulling with those papers," Estel asked, her voice hushed as a nurse called my name and we walked back toward the examination room.

"I’m going to disappear, I’ll go south, to the countryside, somewhere where the people don't read the New York financial news and where no one knows my face or my real name," I told her, sitting on the edge of the crinkly paper of the exam table, my jaw set with a determination I didn't know I possessed until this moment.

"You're going to raise a billionaire’s baby in a village? Eva, you’re twenty-three, you have no job and no home of your own, how are you going to manage that without any help?" Estel asked, her eyes filled with a mix of pity and admiration that made me want to scream.

"I’ll work, I’ll garden, I’ll do whatever I have to do to make sure my baby is safe, because if Lugard gets his hands on her, she will be a prize in a cage just like he wanted me to be, and I won't let my daughter grow up in a world where her father thinks he owns her," I replied, my voice firm even though my heart was racing so fast I could feel it in my throat.

The doctor came in and did the ultrasound, the cold gel on my stomach making me flinch, and then there it was, a tiny, flickering light on the black and white screen that represented a whole new life, a life that belonged half to me and half to the man who had pulled me from the wreckage of a tree.

"She’s beautiful, Eva, she really is," Estel whispered, reaching out to touch my hand, and in that moment, I knew I would do anything, lie to anyone, and live in total isolation if it meant keeping this child away from the chaos of Lugard and Ken.

I left the hospital that day and began making plans, selling the jewelry I had managed to pack and using the cash to rent a small stone cottage in a village four hours away from any major city.

I told my parents I was going on a long trip to clear my head, and I didn't give Estel my new address until I was already standing in the middle of an overgrown garden with the keys in my hand.

Three years passed in that quiet, sun-drenched house, and my daughter, Mia, grew into a girl with dark hair and intense, intelligent eyes that reminded me of Lugard every single time she looked at me.

We lived a simple life, selling vegetables and flowers at the local market, and I finally felt like the shadows of New York were fading into the background, replaced by the sound of Mia’s laughter.

I thought I had won, I thought I had finally escaped the men who wanted to claim me, but as I stood in the garden one afternoon watching Mia play with a wooden truck, the sound of a heavy car engine echoed through the silent street.

I looked up, my heart stopping in my chest, as a black SUV pulled to a stop in front of my gate, its polished paint looking like a stain against the dusty road.