My Secret Lover Is A Billionaire

The silence in St. Patrick's Cathedral wasn't peaceful. It was heavy. It was a physical weight, pressing down on Stella's shoulders, heavier than the twenty pounds of silk and lace dragging from her waist.

She stood alone at the altar.

Three hundred people were watching her back. She could feel their gazes like tiny pinpricks, itching against her skin. The officiant, a kindly old man with bushy eyebrows, cleared his throat. The sound echoed off the vaulted ceilings, a sharp crack that made Stella flinch.

Buzz.

The phone clutched in her white-knuckled hand vibrated. It was the third time in two minutes.

Stella didn't want to look. She knew. Somewhere in the deep, primal part of her gut that processed fear before her brain could catch up, she knew. But her thumb moved anyway, sliding the screen unlock.

Bryce: I can't do this. Monica needs me. I'm sorry.

The world didn't stop. It didn't spin. It just... sharpened.

The smell of the lilies on the altar suddenly became cloying, smelling like a funeral home. The marble floor beneath her heels felt like ice. A wave of nausea rolled through her stomach, hot and acidic.

Monica. Her maid of honor. The woman who had zipped up this dress three hours ago and told her she looked beautiful.

"Stella?"

The voice came from the front pew. Mrs. Dalton. Bryce's mother.

Stella turned. Her movements were stiff, mechanical, like a doll with rusted joints. Mrs. Dalton was rushing toward her, her face arranged in a mask of performative concern, but her eyes—her eyes were cold. Hard.

"Oh, honey," Mrs. Dalton whispered, loud enough for the first five rows to hear. She reached out, her manicured claws digging into Stella's bare arm. "He called me. He said he felt... suffocated. Maybe if you hadn't been so focused on that little career of yours..."

The words hit Stella like a physical slap.

Suffocated?

She had worked two jobs to pay for the deposit on their apartment. She had built his portfolio. She had ironed his shirts this morning while he was allegedly "getting ready with the guys."

Rage, sudden and white-hot, replaced the nausea.

Stella looked at the hand gripping her arm. She looked at the crowd—the whispers were starting now, a low hum of gossip that would be all over the Upper East Side by dinner.

"Let go of me," Stella said. Her voice was low, unrecognizable to her own ears.

"Don't make a scene, Stella," Mrs. Dalton hissed, her smile tightening. "We'll handle the press. You just need to—"

Stella ripped her arm away. The friction burned her skin.

She reached up and grabbed the intricate lace veil pinned to her hair. It had cost two thousand dollars. It had taken three fittings to get right. She tore it off. Pins scraped against her scalp, drawing a tiny bead of blood, but she didn't feel the pain. She only felt the need to breathe.

She threw the veil onto the pristine marble floor. It landed in a heap of white tulle, looking like a dead ghost.

She grabbed the microphone from the stunned officiant's stand. The feedback squeal made the guests cover their ears.

"The wedding is off," Stella said. Her voice boomed, bouncing off the stained glass. "The groom is currently comforting the maid of honor. The drinks at the reception are on the coward who ran. Enjoy them."

She dropped the mic. It hit the floor with a thud that felt like a gavel strike.

Stella turned and marched down the aisle.

Head high. Chin up. Don't blink. If you blink, the tears will fall, and you will not give them that. You will not give them a single drop of salt water.

Her heart was hammering against her ribs, a frantic bird trying to break out of a cage. Thump. Thump. Thump.

She burst through the heavy bronze doors of the cathedral and out onto Fifth Avenue.

The cool October air hit her flushed face. The noise of the city—taxis honking, tourists chatting, the rumble of a bus—washed over her. It was chaotic. It was indifferent. It was perfect.

She took one step down the concrete stairs and stumbled.

The hem of her dress, the train she had lovingly picked out, caught under her heel. Gravity took over. She pitched forward, bracing her hands for the impact of the concrete, for the scrape of skin against stone.

"Watch your step."

The voice was low. Baritone. Gravel and ice.

Stella caught herself on the railing, wrenching her shoulder. She looked down.

Sitting in the shadow of a stone pillar, away from the flow of tourists, was a man in a wheelchair.