His Wine Cost More Than My Unborn Child Chapter 03

His Wine Cost More Than My Unborn Child Chapter 03

The next morning, Corbin woke to the alarm.

Usually I’d have breakfast ready before he even woke up.

But that morning, I lay in bed, back turned to him, not moving.

He didn’t say anything. Just got up quietly, washed up, then came back to the bed and kissed my forehead.

“Nessa, I’m off to work. Stay home and rest, okay?”

“I made a hundred and fifty bucks doing deliveries yesterday. I sent you a hundred and twenty. A little spending money for you.”

“If you go out, just let me know first. Don’t disappear like last night, okay?”

I kept my eyes shut. Didn’t answer.

He didn’t seem to mind. Just stroked my hair gently, then left.

The door clicked shut. I opened my eyes.

Ten minutes later, I was dressed and downstairs.

Just in time to see Corbin on his delivery scooter pulling out of the building.

I hailed a cab. “Follow that scooter.”

The driver glanced at me in the rearview mirror.

“What, you catching a cheater?”

I forced a smile. “Something like that.”

The scooter soon entered Ascot Ridge.

The cab couldn’t get through the gate.

I asked the driver to park nearby and waited.

About thirty minutes later, a black Rolls-Royce pulled out.

The rear window was halfway down.

I saw Corbin sitting inside.

The driver let out a low whistle.

“Rolls-Royce. Guy’s got some serious money.”

“That expensive?” I asked.

“Oh, yeah. Even the base model’ll run you a million.”

I followed Corbin all day.

With every stop, my world got a little bigger.

He rode in a luxury car. Had his own driver.

He visited a bespoke tailor where suits started at six figures.

Then he walked into some high-end jewelry store—the name was all in French, I couldn’t even read it—and bought an entire set.

“How much would something like that cost?” I asked.

The driver shrugged. “Hard to say. Could be millions. Jewelry’s not my thing. I just know that brand is for people with serious money.”

By nightfall, the Rolls-Royce drove into Halcyon Point, the most exclusive neighborhood in the city.

“So?” the driver asked. “You still waiting?”

I got out, paid him for the full day’s ride, and thanked him.

“They run a tight ship in there,” he said. “Nobody gets in without a homeowner’s say-so.”

“I know.”

Places like this—I’d never set foot anywhere like this before.

Maybe fate had finally decided I’d been fooled long enough.

Maybe it wanted me to see everything.

At the security gate, I spotted Tamsin signing in.

She was from a village next to mine.

We’d never been close, but we were hometown girls.

Last year, she’d needed emergency appendix surgery.

I was the one who signed the paperwork and stayed to take care of her afterward.

That was probably why she’d introduced me to the job at The Velvet Room.

“Tamsin.”

She looked up, surprised.

Then she smiled, though it never reached her eyes.

“This isn’t exactly your kind of place.”

“I know someone in there,” I said. “I just want to go see them.”

“I won’t cause you any trouble.”

After a moment, she nodded.

The neighborhood was so large it even had shuttle carts.

I had no idea which house Corbin had gone to.

But as it turned out, the home Tamsin was visiting—that was exactly where I found him.

The massive backyard was lit up like daylight. Guests mingled, drinks in hand.

Corbin stood at the center of it all, the picture of charm, deep in conversation with a young woman in an elegant ball gown.

“That’s Corbin Voss,” Tamsin said, following my gaze. “The Voss family’s heir.”

“You know the Voss family?”

“They’re one of the biggest real estate families. The biggest mall in our city? That’s theirs.”

“You know him?”

I shook my head. Then, after a long pause, I nodded.

Tamsin lit a cigarette and took a drag.

“You know, there’s been a game going around with rich kids like them these past couple of years.”

“They find some pretty girl from a poor background. Play pretend. Act broke.”

“At first it was just a bet to see who could keep the act going the longest without getting caught.”

“Then they realized those girls believed every word. So they raised the stakes.”

“Whoever could get one of those women pregnant, make her get rid of it—and still have her stick around, completely devoted. That was the winner.”

She looked straight at me.

“I heard Corbin won a few million off that bet.”

Her gaze swept over me, a slow smile tugged at the corner of her mouth.

“So the woman who got pregnant for Corbin, lost the baby, and helped him win all that money—that was you.”