50 Billion Reasons to Leave You Chapter 04

50 Billion Reasons to Leave You Chapter 04 My Wife Chose Another Man

He lifted the container and poured the scalding soup directly onto the wound between my legs.

Pain ripped through me.

Before I could even scream, he planted his shoe against my face and ground my cheek into the

mattress.

His smile turned ugly.

“Look at you, Ryan. You’re not even a whole man anymore. What exactly do still competing with me for?”

you

think you’re

He leaned closer.

“You belong in a sewer. So stay down there in the filth and watch me take your wife, your family, your company, and every last thing you ever cared about.”

When Cherine came back and saw the new injuries, Kian’s eyes immediately filled with tears.

He told her I had hurt myself just to frame him.

Cherine flew into a rage.

“Ryan wants to keep acting up? Fine. Don’t feed him for a few days. Let’s see if he still has the energy to cause trouble.”

By the time my parents finally came to see me, I was nothing but skin and bone.

I looked like a corpse someone had forgotten to bury.

For one brief second, my mother’s eyes turned red.

She opened a food container and lifted a spoon to my mouth. Her voice was softer than it had been in years.

“Ryan, honey, eat something.”

I didn’t look at her. I turned my face away.

She tried again and again.

When I still refused, she slammed the bowl onto the floor.

“What is wrong with you? Are you starving yourself just to make your father and me feel

guilty?”

Her face twisted with anger.

“You selfish, ungrateful son. We wasted our lives raising you.”

I stared at the ceiling.

All I could see was the past.

After my parents’ car accident, I had dropped everything to care for them.

I was so afraid something would happen while I slept that I barely closed my eyes for weeks.

I worked myself so hard that I became seriously ill and nearly lost my sight.

Back then, they bragged about me to anyone who would listen.

They called me the most devoted son in the world.

Since they had forgotten, I decided I could forget too.

The day Kian took over as CEO of Parker Group, Cherine had me dragged to the celebration.

Kian stood confidently at the podium, dressed in a perfectly tailored suit worth a fortune.

The spotlight shone down on him.

The family I had once loved crowded around him like he was the sun and they were lucky to stand in his light.

“Kian,” my father said proudly, “Parker Group and Cherine are both yours now. Take good care of them.”

My wife pressed herself against Kian’s chest and kissed him in front of everyone.

Meanwhile, I stood in the corner in a wrinkled hospital gown.

I looked ridiculous.

By the time I realized I had moved, I was already standing in front of Cherine.

My voice shook.

“Is this why you brought me here? So I could stand here and watch my wife cheat on me with another man in front of everyone?”

The ballroom exploded with whispers.

Cherine’s face hardened. She shoved me off the stage.

“What are you trying to ruin now? Kian is my husband and the CEO of Parker Group. How is that cheating?”

Then she held up a marriage certificate.

Her name was on it.

So was Kian’s.

She took the microphone and faced the crowd.

“I’m sorry everyone had to see this. My ex-husband had to have surgery because of his filthy sex life. Now that he sees me pregnant with my husband’s baby, he’s having another mental breakdown.”

The room instantly came alive with gossip.

Every mocking stare landed on me.

“Oh my God, poor Ms. Whitmore. Can you imagine being married to someone that unstable?”

“Thank goodness the Parkers still have another son. At least Kian can inherit the company and take care of her.”

I listened to them tear me apart.

Then I looked at Cherine and Stella.

Neither one of them showed even a flicker of guilt.

Something inside me went completely still.

“Cherine,” I said, “did you forget who put you where you are today?”

Then I turned to Stella.

“Stella, do you honestly believe you built that career on your own?”

I looked at both of them.

“I put you at the top. I can pull you right back down.”

The room erupted again.

Cherine and Stella stared at me, their faces dark with fury.

“You really are out of your mind,” Cherine snapped.

She waved a hand dismissively.

The guards grabbed me and dragged me out like a bag of trash.

They threw me onto the pavement outside.

Laughter spilled through the ballroom doors behind me.

“Did he seriously say Ms. Whitmore and Ms. Parker owe everything to him?

“Oh my God, that’s hilarious. Dude, take a look at yourself.”

I reached for my phone.

Just a minute earlier, $50 billion and a stake in Whitmore Group had landed in my account.

I took a slow breath and called another number.

Inside the ballroom, everyone kept congratulating Kian.

Right before Cherine could announce Kian as the new CEO of Parker Group, her assistant came rushing onto the stage.

“Ms. Whitmore, we have a serious problem. Whitmore Group’s investors are pulling their money out all at once, and the shareholders are demanding that the board remove you immediately.”