He Secretly Married His Mistress While Living Off My Money—So I Stripped His Wealth Overnight Chapter 04

He Secretly Married His Mistress While Living Off My Money—So I Stripped His Wealth Overnight Chapter 04

Blood pooled thick in my throat, stuck halfway down with no way to swallow or spit it out.

The man before me looked like a complete stranger, a monster I’d never known.

He tilted his lips upward and shook his smartphone while staring at my deathly pale face.

“Don’t think you can outplay me, Sorrel Bennett. I hold all the cards here.”

Those intimate shots had been taken back when our romance burned brightest.

Brendan had claimed he wanted to lock in my most beautiful moments forever.

Blinded by love and trust, I’d laid myself bare entirely for him.

I’d never guessed those photos would become his weapon to bully and break me.

I locked eyes with him, barely managing to get out a single syllable. “You…”

Brendan straightened his posture.

“I swore after losing our first child that no kid of mine would ever endure harm again.”

“Anyone who hurts my baby will wish they were dead.”

My eyes stung and swelled, torn between weeping and bitter laughter.

He’d poured all the guilt from our lost baby onto another woman’s unborn child.

It was absurd and heartbreaking beyond words.

As he pulled up the photo album and hovered his finger over send, my knees crashed hard against marble flooring in a formal public spoken apology.

A dull thud echoed through the space.

“I’m sorry.”

Unbridled glee shone in Maren’s eyes as she dictated my next words.

“Say you were a homewrecker chasing another woman’s husband.”

“If you’re going to step into that role, you pay the price for it.”

Brendan’s brows twitched briefly as he watched from the side, yet he said nothing to stop her.

I stared at the man I’d loved in utter despair, jaw clamped tight until metallic blood coated my tongue.

I forced the humiliating line out through gritted teeth. “I’m a homewrecker who chased another woman’s husband.”

I bowed my head three times against the cold stone.

Dead silence settled over my vision.

“Happy now?”

Jeering insults from the surrounding crowd washed over me nonstop.

Maren slipped on a magnanimous grin and bent to pretend helping me stand.

“Own your mistake and rise. I choose to forgive you.”

The second her fingertips brushed my sleeve, she wrenched my arm hard and dragged me forward.

My body refused to steady itself despite my instinct to dodge.

We crashed onto the floor together.

She instantly clutched her stomach and burst into fresh tears.

“It hurts terribly!”

“Brendan, she never meant her apology. She tried to hurt our baby on purpose!”

Searing judgmental stares cut into my skin like sharp blades.

“Her malice runs deep through and through.”

“Even on her knees she plots harm, how shameless can someone be?”

Brendan reacted on raw instinct and shoved my crumpled form roughly across the floor.

“Sorrel Bennett, your cruelty is beyond redemption.”

He turned to lift Maren gently into his arms, his tone soft and tender.

“Fear not, Maren. I’ll get you checked by a doctor; our baby will be fine.”

My midsection slammed against a hospital waiting-room bench, crippling spasms wracking my whole frame.

A heavy dragging pull weighed down my lower belly, sharp cramping twisting inside as if a dull blade churned my insides.

Cold dread squeezed my heart tight.

Shaking badly, I grabbed the hem of his trousers.

“Brendan… my stomach hurts so badly.”

He glanced down, nothing but revulsion written across his features.

“Quit putting on a show. Stomach aches don’t kill, stop embarrassing yourself here.”

Sweat soaked every inch of my clothes from unrelenting pain. Curled on the ground, I struggled to speak.

“It’s not stomach pain… it’s my belly.”

Brendan’s cold mocking smirk lingered as he peered down from above.

“Are you jealous seeing someone else pregnant and faking suffering for sympathy?”

“Your body’s always been broken, you’ve never carried a baby to term anyway.”

Every word stabbed like poison-tipped needles into my oldest wounds.

I’d never should’ve clung to even a shred of hope for him.

Scraping together my last ounce of strength, I fumbled for my phone to dial my father.

I needed to get away home right this instant.