Shattered Vows A Coppers Love and a Billionaires Daughter

For six years, I devoted my life to my wife, tech CEO Isabella Stone. After I saved her from a fire, I became the sole caregiver for her comatose mother, putting my own life on hold so she could build her empire.

Then she went on national television and told the world our marriage was just a debt of gratitude. She never loved me.

That same night, her mother died. I tried to call her, but her ex-fiancé—the man who abandoned her in that fire—answered the phone.

She was with him, pregnant with his child, while her mother died alone in a hospital.

At the funeral, she collapsed and lost the baby. Her lover screamed that it was my fault, and she stood by his side, letting him blame me.

I divorced her. I thought it was over.

But as we left the lawyer's office, her lover tried to run me over. Isabella pushed me out of the way, taking the hit herself. With her last breath, she confessed the truth.

"The baby... he was yours, Izzy. He was always yours."

Chapter 1

The headline glowed on Israel Clark' s phone screen. "The Tech Titan and the Six-Year Secret: Isabella Stone' s Journey Back to the Top."

He watched the video, his thumb hovering over the screen. Isabella, his wife, looked confident and poised in a sharp business suit, a world away from the broken woman he' d married.

A reporter smiled. "Isabella, your success is an inspiration. But our readers are curious about your husband, Israel Clark. He saved you from that terrible data center fire six years ago. Is this a great love story?"

Isabella' s laugh was light, but her eyes were cold. "Israel is a kind man. I was grateful, and he was there for me when I was at my lowest. I owed him a lot."

She paused, letting the words hang in the air. "But gratitude isn't love. I think we both understood that."

The words hit Israel with the force of a physical blow. Six years. Six years of devotion, of caring not just for her, but for her comatose mother, Harriet. All of it, reduced to a debt paid.

He felt a bitter, hollow laugh build in his chest. A fool. He was a fool.

The comments section under the video exploded.

"Wow, she just called her husband a charity case on national TV."

"Six years of gratitude? That's one long thank you card."

"Poor guy probably still thinks she loves him."

Israel' s hand tightened on the phone until his knuckles were white. He didn' t need to read any more. The public humiliation was just salt in a wound that had been festering for years.

He stood up, his movements stiff. The illusion was shattered. There was nothing left to pretend for. He walked to the window, the city lights blurring through the sudden moisture in his eyes.