The Billionaire’s Wife Who Couldn’t Afford Anything Chapter 06

The Billionaire’s Wife Who Couldn’t Afford Anything Chapter 06 Too Late to Regret

Inside the massive warehouse, only two old standing air conditioners struggled to blow out weak streams of cold air.

They barely helped at all.

The entire sorting center was suffocating-thick heat, sticky humidity, and the sour smell of piled-up cardboard boxes and sweat mixing together in the air.

Adrian Hawthorne stood there in silence as he watched an elderly woman stagger past carrying packages nearly twice her body size.

Her back was bent painfully forward.

Her face was flushed bright red.

Sweat poured down her neck like rain while she gritted her teeth and kept walking.

For a split second, Adrian suddenly imagined me working here exactly the same way.

His chest tightened so painfully he almost couldn’t breathe.

Someone slammed hard into his shoulder.

A man with a cigarette hanging from his mouth glanced at him impatiently.

“Old Walker said you were looking for me?”

Adrian nodded quickly.

“I… I’m looking for my wife.

“Do you know where Evelyn went?”

The station manager took a long drag from his cigarette.

Years of hard labor had made him blunt and rough around the edges.

“You piece of shit.

“So now you finally remember you’ve got a wife?”

Adrian froze.

The manager jabbed a finger toward the warehouse workers nearby.

“What the hell is wrong with you?

“You forced Little Evelyn to send her kid to some elite private preschool that costs over fifty grand a year, but you didn’t pay a damn cent yourself.

“You trying to work her to death?”

He pointed toward the older woman from before.

“You see her?

“When Evelyn desperately needed money, she’d work shifts just like that for entire nights straight.

“She wrecked her back doing it, too. Popped a couple of painkillers and kept working anyway.”

Adrian’s nose instantly stung with sourness.

All he could say hoarsely was:

“I failed her.

“And I failed my son, too.

“I want to make things right.”

The station manager sighed heavily.

“She quit.

“Said she was taking her kid and leaving.

“That’s all I know.”

Then his expression hardened again.

“If you’ve got even a little conscience left, leave that mother and son alone.

“They’ve already suffered enough.

“Stop draining anything else from them.”

Then he turned and walked away.

Adrian could only continue searching through every place I had ever worked.

The restaurant where I washed dishes.

The DoorDash pickup station.

The nightclub where I worked had temporary cleaning shifts.

Before this, all those jobs had only existed as emotionless lines inside reports handed to him by

assistants.

But now that he was personally visiting each place one after another, he finally understood how brutal my life had really been.

“Little Evelyn quit already,” one restaurant worker told him.

“But damn, that girl worked hard.

“She sliced her finger open once and wrapped it in plastic wrap so she could keep washing dishes.

“She said her son went to an expensive school and she wanted to buy him new shoes so the other kids wouldn’t look down on him.”

“Evelyn?”

A delivery driver shook his head.

“Haven’t seen her in a while.

“She injured her leg delivering food during a rainstorm and never came back after that.”

“Oh, Little Evelyn.”

The nightclub cleaner immediately recognized the name.

“She doesn’t clean bathrooms here anymore.

“Customers got drunk and threw up all over her constantly. Nobody could stand that kind of

treatment.

“But the money was good, so she endured it.”

The woman paused briefly before adding:

“I heard she got divorced.

“Honestly, the way she worked herself to death, I thought she was a widow.”

Adrian listened to every single sentence.

And with every word, his chest hurt more.

It felt like a delayed execution, a knife slowly carving his heart apart piece by piece.

As he walked out of the nightclub, the owner suddenly stopped him.

“Wait.”

She handed him a Lego set still wrapped in plastic.

“Evelyn asked me to order this for her.

“She said all the other kids at Noah’s school had one.

“She cleaned bathrooms for half a month just to afford it.

“She felt awful because her son didn’t have toys like the other kids.”

The owner sighed softly.

“Give it to her for me if you find her.

“She’s had a hard enough life already.”

Adrian lowered his eyes toward the toy in his hands.

It wasn’t even an expensive set.

The price barely reached four digits.

Normally, something this cheap wouldn’t even register in his mind. He had already bought piles of bigger Lego sets for Ryan Lowell without a second thought.

But now, holding this tiny box in his hands felt heavier than a thousand pounds.

When Adrian finally returned home, Hawthorne Manor felt cold and empty.

Noah wasn’t there.

I wasn’t there either.

Something inside him suddenly tightened painfully.

He turned toward the housekeeper.

“Where does Noah keep his toys?”

The housekeeper looked stunned by the question.

“Young Master Noah…

“He doesn’t really have any toys.”

She hesitated awkwardly before continuing:

“A few days ago, Miss Vanessa gave him an old Lego set Ryan didn’t want anymore.

“He loved it so much.

“But then Young Master Ryan called him a little beggar because of it.

“He cried for two days straight before Madam finally managed to comfort him.”

Buzz.

Adrian’s ears suddenly rang violently.

Before he even realized it, tears were already falling from his eyes.

One drop after another splashed onto the cold marble floor.

Inside the bedroom, my luggage sat quietly in one tiny pile.

It was somehow even smaller than the belongings I had brought with me when we first got married.

Adrian suddenly found himself asking the same question over and over inside his head.

What exactly was I supposed to be after?

What had I gained from any of this?

Three years of suffering?

Three years of humiliation?

Three years of poverty?

For the first time in his life-

Adrian truly regretted everything.

He should never have listened to Richard’s ridiculous obsession with testing me.

Who cared if I was a gold digger?

He was rich enough to support Noah and me for the rest of our lives anyway.

But the cruelest part was that I had never wanted his money at all.

Through blurred vision, Adrian slowly looked toward the empty wall above the bed.

That ridiculous courthouse selfie used to hang there.

Now there was nothing left.

And finally, he understood the truth.

I wasn’t throwing a tantrum,

Noah and I had truly abandoned him.

At that moment, his phone suddenly rang.

Richard Hawthorne’s voice came through cheerfully:

“Did you find her yet?

“If she’s still angry, just transfer her a few million dollars. Once she sees the money, she definitely won’t stay mad.

“And when she comes back, I’ll personally arrange a grand wedding ceremony for the two of you as compensation!”

Adrian fell silent for a long moment.

Then, in a hoarse voice thick with tears, he finally said:

“Dad…

“It’s too late.

“Evie and Noah aren’t coming back anymore.”

Life after leaving the Hawthorne Family turned out to be peaceful in a way I had almost forgotten existed.

Quiet.

Warm.

Comfortable.

Thankfully, Noah Hawthorne was still young enough that transferring schools wasn’t too complicated.

After bringing him back to Cedar Hollow, I found a nice local preschool and enrolled him there.

The atmosphere in a small town was completely different from Newford City.

The children here didn’t compare designer shoes or expensive toys every day.

Instead, they argued passionately about which Power Ranger was the strongest.

And slowly, Noah began changing too.

He became brighter.

Livelier.

He stopped sitting alone on swings by himself during recess and started laughing with other kids while racing down slides together.

“Noah! Don’t forget to watch Power Rangers tonight!”

One little boy waved excitedly at him outside the school gates.

“Tomorrow I’m gonna be the Red Ranger, and you have to play the monster!”

Noah immediately grabbed my hand and laughed happily.

“Okay!

“Tomorrow I’ll bring you the sandwich my mom makes.”

“They’re really good!”