The Billionaire's Cruelest Lesson

Name: The Billionaire's Cruelest Lesson
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Gavin

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Everyone in the city said I was the luckiest woman alive. I was the diner waitress who saved the amnesiac tech billionaire, Hudson Scott. He fell in love with me, and when his memory returned, he married me against his family's wishes, telling the world I was his one true love. But that was a lie. The man I loved vanished the day the billionaire came back. In his place was a possessive monster who saw me as a possession, and he had just found a new obsession: an artist named Ginger. That's when the punishments began. Tonight, because Ginger claimed I'd glared at her, he dragged me to a derelict warehouse. My sick mother was tied to a chair, surrounded by open cans of gasoline. He flicked a lighter open, giving me ten seconds to confess to a lie. The man who once worked odd jobs to buy her medicine was now threatening to burn her alive because another woman cried. But it was all a sick performance. Just as he tossed the lighter and flames erupted, his men dragged my mother to safety. "See what happens when you're not a good girl?" he whispered, before leaving with Ginger. As I carried my mother out of that hellhole, I made a call to a number I hadn't used in years. "Cason? I need your help. I need to disappear." This time, his world would be the one going up in flames.

Modern Betrayal Forced love CEO Drama

Chapter 18

08-16 19:55

Chapter 1

But that was a lie. The man I loved vanished the day the billionaire came back. In his place was a possessive monster who saw me as a possession, and he had just found a new obsession: an artist named Ginger.

That's when the punishments began. Tonight, because Ginger claimed I'd glared at her, he dragged me to a derelict warehouse. My sick mother was tied to a chair, surrounded by open cans of gasoline.

He flicked a lighter open, giving me ten seconds to confess to a lie. The man who once worked odd jobs to buy her medicine was now threatening to burn her alive because another woman cried.

But it was all a sick performance. Just as he tossed the lighter and flames erupted, his men dragged my mother to safety. "See what happens when you're not a good girl?" he whispered, before leaving with Ginger.

As I carried my mother out of that hellhole, I made a call to a number I hadn't used in years.

"Cason? I need your help. I need to disappear."

This time, his world would be the one going up in flames.

Chapter 1

Everyone in the city said I, Aleen Anthony, was the luckiest woman alive.

They said I had climbed the social ladder, a Cinderella story for the modern age.

They said Hudson Scott, the tech billionaire, the man who held the city's economy in the palm of his hand, doted on me, cherished me, loved me to the bone.

It was a beautiful story.

A compassionate diner waitress rescues a handsome amnesiac after a terrible car crash. She nurses him back to health in her small, working-class town. They fall in love, a simple, pure love built in a tiny apartment that always smelled like grease and bleach.

His name was just Hudson then. He had nothing but the clothes on his back and me.

I had nothing but my ailing mother and him.

We were each other's everything.

He would work odd jobs, his hands, which I later learned were meant for billion-dollar deals, getting calloused from manual labor. He' d save every penny to buy my mother, Ira, her expensive medication.

Then, one year to the day of the crash, his memory came back.

The world was stunned when Hudson Scott, the ruthless tech mogul who had been presumed dead, reappeared. They were even more stunned when he, against his family' s furious objections and the ridicule of his entire social circle, insisted on marrying me.

At the press conference announcing his return, he held my hand and told the world, "Aleen is my wife. My love for her will never change, no matter who I am."

It was a fairy tale.

But I knew the truth. I knew it the moment his eyes, once so gentle, looked at me with a new, chilling glint.

The man I loved, the gentle Hudson who would peel oranges for me, died the day Hudson Scott came back to life.

In his place was a monster. A paranoid, pathologically possessive stranger who saw me not as a wife, but as a possession.

His love became a cage.

And then he met Ginger Nash. A provocative, self-proclaimed performance artist who breathed chaos. He became infatuated.

That' s when the punishments began.

"You looked at the waiter for too long, Aleen," he' d say, his voice a low growl. And for that, I' d be locked in a dark room for a day.

Tonight, the punishment was for something new. Ginger had tearfully told him that I' d "glared" at her during a gallery event, making her feel "unsafe."

"Hudson, I didn't," I pleaded, my voice trembling as he dragged me from the car. "I never even spoke to her."

He said nothing. His face was a mask of cold fury. He pulled me through the doors of a derelict warehouse on the outskirts of the city, the air thick with the smell of mildew and gasoline.

My blood ran cold. I knew this place. He'd bought it last month.

He shoved me into the main room, and my heart stopped.

My mother, Ira, was tied to a chair in the center of the room. Her face was pale with terror, her weak lungs struggling for breath. Cans of gasoline surrounded her.

"What did you say to Ginger?" Hudson' s voice was calm, which was far more terrifying than his anger. He walked over to my mother, a lighter flicking open in his hand. The flame danced in the darkness.

"Hudson, no! Please!" I scrambled towards him, falling to my knees. "She's my mother! She's all I have!"

He looked down at me, his expression unreadable. "I'll ask you one more time. What did you say to make Ginger cry?"

"I didn't! I swear I didn't!" Tears streamed down my face. I grabbed his pant leg, my whole body shaking. "Please, Hudson, she's sick. The stress will kill her."

"You have ten seconds to tell me the truth, Aleen," he said, his voice dropping to a whisper. "Or I'll find out how flammable this place really is. Ten."

My mind fractured. The man who once saved his money to buy her medicine was now threatening to burn her alive. For a lie told by another woman.

He never loved me. Not the real me. He loved the idea of me, the simple girl who saved him, his possession. And now, he was infatuated with a new toy.

I had asked for a divorce a month ago, after the first time he' d locked me in the closet. He had laughed, his hand gripping my jaw until it bruised.

"Divorce?" he'd sneered. "Aleen, you belong to me. You don't get to leave. Ever. Ginger is just for fun. You are my wife. You need to learn your place."

I had no choice. I was trapped.

"Five," he counted, his thumb hovering over the lighter's wheel.

"Four."

The gasoline fumes were making me dizzy. My mother was weeping silently, her eyes pleading with me.

"Three."

"I did it!" I screamed, the words tearing from my throat. "I admit it! I told her to stay away from you! I was jealous! I'm sorry!"

The counting stopped. Hudson' s face was dark, his eyes boring into me. He snapped the lighter shut and pocketed it.

He walked over to me, grabbing my hair and forcing my head back. "Too late."

My blood froze. "What?"

He flicked the lighter. A small flame erupted, and he tossed it towards one of the open gasoline cans.

"NO!"

The world exploded into fire. The roar was deafening. Flames shot up towards the ceiling, engulfing the chair, swallowing my mother's screams.

I collapsed, a raw, animalistic wail tearing from my soul. I crawled towards the inferno, my hands scraping against the rough concrete. "Mom! MOM!"

The heat was unbearable. The smoke choked me. My vision blurred through a thick curtain of tears. She was gone. He had killed her.

Suddenly, a side door burst open. Hudson' s bodyguards rushed in with fire extinguishers, followed by Ginger Nash, who looked perfectly fine, a smirk playing on her lips.

They put out the fire quickly.

And I saw her.

My mother was on the floor a few feet away from the blaze, coughing and gasping, but alive. One of the guards had untied her and dragged her away just before Hudson threw the lighter.

It was all a show. A sick, twisted performance to teach me a lesson.

I stared, my mind a hollow, echoing chamber of horror. I started to laugh. A broken, hysterical sound that echoed in the cavernous space.

Hudson strode over to me, crouching down. He wiped a tear from my cheek with his thumb, his touch like ice.

"See, Aleen?" he whispered, his voice laced with a sick sort of tenderness. "This is what happens when you're not a good girl. Remember this pain. Don't ever make me do it again."

He stood up, towering over me. "Take your mother and go home. I expect you to have dinner ready for me when I get back."

He turned and left with Ginger, who shot me a triumphant glare over her shoulder.

I stayed on the floor, shaking, until I could finally move. I crawled to my mother, helping her to her feet. She was trembling uncontrollably.

I half-carried, half-dragged her out of that hellhole. Once outside in the cold night air, I pulled out my phone, my fingers fumbling with the screen.

I found the number. A number I hadn't called in years.

"Cason?" I whispered, my voice cracking. "It's Aleen. I need your help. I need to disappear."

I looked back at the city skyline, at the gleaming tower with his name on it.

This was over. I would burn it all to the ground.