The Billionaire He Threw Away Chapter 06

The Billionaire He Threw Away Chapter 06

Gerald’s team worked fast.

Within forty-eight hours, a sealed envelope arrived at the Greenwich Hotel. Inside was a dossier on Vanessa Price-twenty-three pages,

single-spaced, thorough enough to make a detective blush.

I spread the pages across the hotel bed and read.

Vanessa Price, thirty-one. Born in Philadelphia. Degree in marketing from a mid-tier university. Employment history: three short stints at PR firms,

each ending abruptly. No references.

But it was the financial records that made my hands go still.

Six months ago-right around the time she “reappeared” in Liam’s life-Vanessa had received a wire transfer of $50,000 from an offshore

account. The source was buried under three shell companies, but Gerald’s forensic accountant had traced it back to one name.

Richard Hale.

The man I had just forced off the Wentworth board.

I sat back against the headboard, pulse hammering.

Richard Hale had paid Vanessa to infiltrate Liam’s life. But why? What did Liam’s little startup have to do with a man sitting on a billion-dollar

board?

I flipped to the next page. And there it was.

Prism Digital’s new partnership with Bellworth Media wasn’t just any deal. Bellworth was a subsidiary of Wentworth Industries. Richard had been

steering Prism Digital toward a deal that would give him backdoor access to Wentworth’s media assets-assets that now belonged to me

Vanessa wasn’t just a mistress. She was a plant.

And the pregnancy? Gerald’s team had pulled her pharmacy records. No prenatal vitamins. No OB-GYN visits. No medical records of any kind

related to pregnancy.

She wasn’t carrying Liam’s baby.

She was carrying Richard Hale’s scheme.

My first instinct was to call Liam. To lay every page of this dossier in front of him and watch his face as the truth dismantled everything he

thought he knew.

But I didn’t.

Because Liam had chosen her. Without question. Without hesitation. He’d put me on a bare couch and handed her my life-and he hadn’t once stopped to wonder if something didn’t add up.

He didn’t deserve a warning. He deserved a front-row seat.

I called Gerald. “Set up a meeting with Bellworth Media’s CEO. And get me everything on the Prism Digital deal.

Then I called Diane. “I need to attend a charity gala next Friday.”

“Which one?”

“The one Prism Digital is sponsoring.”

A pause. Then, with the faintest trace of a smile in her voice: “I’ll have your dress ready by Wednesday.

The rest of the week, I moved like a ghost through two separate worlds.

During the day, I was at Wentworth Industries, learning the company from the inside out. Every meeting, every report, every handshake taught me something new. The executives who had dismissed me on day one were beginning to watch me with something close to respect.

At night, I returned to the apartment.

I still slept on the couch. I still listened to Vanessa’s laughter through the bedroom wall. I still endured Liam’s cold indifference, his clipped

instructions, his complete inability to see me as anything other than a burden.

But now, each slight landed differently. Because I knew it was temporary.

On Thursday night, Liam sat down across from me at the kitchen table. He looked uncomfortable-fidgety in a way I hadn’t seen since our first

date.

“Elise,” he said. “We need to talk about the apartment.”

“What about it?”

Vanessa needs more space. The baby’s coming in a few months, and we need to convert the living room into a nursery.” He swallowed. “I think…

it might be best if you found your own place.”

He was kicking me out.

Of the apartment I had found. The apartment I had furnished. The apartment whose rent I had paid alone for the first eight months because his

startup wasn’t making money.

I looked at him-really looked. And for the first time, I didn’t feel pain.

I felt pity.

“Okay,” I said.

His eyebrows lifted. He’d expected a fight. Tears. Begging, maybe.

“Okay?” he repeated.

“I’ll be out by Saturday.”

He nodded slowly, relief washing over his face so visibly it was almost obscene.

“Thank you, Elise. I know this is hard. But it’s the right thing. For everyone.”

I smiled. It was a real smile-the kind that comes from knowing something no one else in the room knows.

“You’re right,” I said. “It is.”