Mr Billionaire's Plaything

ella

against my ribs like it's trying to break out of my chest. I sit still, breathing unevenly,

want t

yet,

off. I haven't dipped it yet. It's there, like

doesn't w

pushes him

the one good thing we've starte

t it. Brick by hopeful b

a positive or a negative. Just strength. To f

ip into the urine sam

lat on the counter wi

ach second ticks louder than the last. My leg bounce

I want to cry, s

good news. What

on't recognize. Not the strong Arabella who walked into this marriage with h

st time in fore

aka

to smile, but my lips betr

d tall, but m

Tick

e five years when your whole

hen,

mer sc

mirror, where doubt and fear have made a

slow, shaking inhale

drop

ink l

undeniab

gna

ds me all at once. A hysterical laugh escapes, tears chasing it down my cheek

preg

g to hav

ike it'll feel more

tomach, already imagining the

is face flash

ch

he be

push that sends him runnin

n slices my

on his end. It was an arrangement. A contract signed with suits and lawyers and

leeps beside me more often than not. Kisses my foreh

I imagine

ieve that the man I fell f

rs, toss the test into the bin

I tell him. I need to believe he'll see me. Really see me. No

al. My heartbeat echoes through it like a war drum.

I hea

vo

e, deep and smooth like

e you,

rld f

m. The kind he's never given me. Th

v

go numb on

e hell

see him behind his desk, phone to h

ut that night," he says. "

dies in

or just as I swing it

guilt. The panic. But it's gone

ocketing his phone

nothing happened. "I was

n't

at his perfect, lying face. But the words chok

ks, flipping files into his bri

. "What

vorce p

s, but no sou

ally l

mply. "We had an agreement, remember? When she c

slice through me, cruel and clean. I st

ers," I

before me? The woman he mourned through our wedd

was gone. Out

he's

I'm

d for a fleeting second, I swear he fa

abella. I know

g me like we're canceling a lunch date. I just.." My

. For once, he

t we were finally getting somewhere," I whisper, stepping clo

ys no

mething

h his hair, pacing. "

ear

e's no ice in his expression. Just

with someone I don't l

tilts be

y this time, but to hold back the

cream. To hit him.

," I m

stay in this room. I ca

s, through the door, into the c

like the truth I refuse

his baby wo

s wr

eginning o

ybe, it's the start

sion, and from the wreckage of a marriage

g I haven't fel

u

fi

ve ha

he best thing

this

ll never beg

ne like Rich