Page 150 of My Big, Fat, Accidental Billionaire Husband

My phone buzzes. When I see it’s not Tatiana, I ignore it.

It buzzes again.

I turn it off.

When we arrive, Jake and the second security agent follow me into the building.

“That’s enough,” I tell them when we reach the hallway outside my penthouse. “You’re dismissed for the night.”

Jake frowns. “Sir, standard protocol is to—”

“I don’t give a fuck about protocol right now. Go home.”

He hesitates, then nods. “Call if you need us.”

I watch them enter the elevator, wait for the doors to close, then cross to me suite like a zombie. I unlock my penthouse door with my key card.

The silence hits me first. It’s crushing, oppressive. For weeks, this space has been filled with her presence. The faint scent of her perfume, the sound of her typing in her home office, the warmth she brought to these cold, perfect rooms.

Now there’s nothing.

I suppose she’ll come to collect her things at some point. Or send someone else to do it, most likely. That way there’s no chance she’ll bump into me.

I pass by the door to the guest suite, and resist the urge to go inside. Seeing her things, smelling her scent, will only break me further.

I walk to the bar and pour myself a whiskey. Then another. The alcohol burns going down, but it doesn’t touch the ice forming in my chest. I stare at the glass, remembering how just hours ago I stood in this same spot, downing whiskey while she watched me with concern in her eyes.

While I plotted her betrayal.

Before I used her as my own personal masturbation receptacle, with no concern for her own release.

My legs give out suddenly. I slide to the floor, spilling whiskey across the imported marble. The glass shatters beside me, but I barely notice.

What the fuck have I done?

The question echoes in the empty space, unanswered. I lie back, sprawled in the middle of my perfect penthouse, staring at the ceiling, letting the weight of my failure crush me.

I betrayed her. The only woman who ever saw past my walls, who challenged me, who made me feel something beyond the guilt and control that’s ruled my life. I tried to trade her away like she was nothing. All because I couldn’t stand up to my brother. Couldn’t face my own demons.

“Fucking coward,” I whisper to the ceiling.

That’s what I am. What I’ve always been. A coward hiding behind money and power and control. A man so trapped by past guilt that he’d sacrifice someone innocent to appease it.

I see again Tatiana’s face when she realized what I’d done. The shock. The hurt. The disgust. She looked at me like I was a monster.

And she was right.

My phone sits heavy in my pocket. I pull it out, turn it back on. There are texts from Eleanor about tomorrow’s meetings. One from Arthur Sterling about finalizing the resort documentation, and signing the annulment.

Nothing from Tatiana.

Of course not. Why would she contact me after what I did?

I pull up her contact, my thumb hovering over her name.

What would I even say? Sorry I tried to pimp you out to my brother? Sorry I’m such a fucking coward I couldn’t tell him no?

A minute passes. Two.

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