My Billionaire Fiancé's Hidden Wife

poured my family's fortune into. But then I found the lockbox. Inside, a photo of h

n it. The faded Polaroid showed Knox, younger, beaming, with a heavily pregnant s

na and our upcoming miracle.* My world crumbled. The man I'd loved had a wi

on-all for a man who used my money and trust-shredded in my mind. The fragile woman in me vanished; my eyes turned cold and clear. I re

pte

Morri

ing for a spare

ck. The shadows were thick, pressing against my skin. My chest tightened automatically. *The sharp click of the lock. My mother's heels click

They tumbled to the floor with a muffled

pet to gather the scattered boxes. As my fingers brushed the floor, I

ug my nails into the heavy w

ecess in the floorboards

clinical light of the main closet. My hands were perfectly ste

we met. The red li

Knox's birthday. The red l

He never drank past his limit. Except for one night, three years ago, when a fever had him delirious. He had m

ick

. The smell of old paper an

g receipts from a clinic in the Boston suburbs. I scanned the faded i

tetr

rs turned to ice. I pushed the receipts aside and p

st coated the glossy surface. I rubbed

righter, stripped of the calculated academic arrogance he

ing a woman tightly against his side. She w

ttom right corner of the Polaroid. The times

years

y first disbursement from my family trust fund to

r me. My wrist went limp. The steel lockbox slipped

t of my hand. It landed fac

the photo was Knox's handwriting. The precise, slanted script I

Deana and our u

th hands over my mouth, swallowing down t

knees until my spine slammed hard a

nd me was the five-million-dollar closet I had meticulo

p on the vanity islan

is over. I'm coming

The tears that had been burning the

le, I took the last ten years of my life-the sacrifices, the late nights formatting h

oman in the mirror was gone. My eyes

und it. I locked the steel lid. I set it back in the hidden recess and

p a tube of crimson lipstick and applied it sl

ion and practiced a fl

ome, my sw