Chapter 1: Betrayal
"Fuck me harder, Kian."
Isabella Kingston had never imagined her marriage would end like this, frozen in the hallway of her own mansion, clutching a pregnancy test result.
And now...
Now...
Kian Carter, her husband’s familiar voice and the mouth she’d kissed every morning for over three years groaned in pleasure, while slamming deep into another woman that wasn’t her.
Isabella’s fingers dug into the crumpled edges of the paper, her palms damp with sweat.
She didn’t open the door, but her ears caught every detail she wished she could unhear.
’How can this be?’
She had come home early to surprise him, carrying proof of a baby they had spent a year trying to conceive. Now, that hope was shattered alongside her trust.
She forced herself to swallow hard, fighting back the urge to vomit on the spot.
She took two clumsy steps backward, her rubber-tipped cane catching the edge of a mahogany pedestal.
The ceramic vase tipped over, shattering against the baseboard with a loud crash.
The bedroom grew completely still. The mattress springs stopped squeaking instantly.
"Who’s out there?" Kian’s voice sliced through the silence, stripped of all the heat it had held seconds ago.
Panic exploded in Isabella’s chest. She turned toward where she remembered the grand staircase, her boots sliding on the polished wood.
Tears finally broke free, pouring down her cheeks in hot silent streams, but she kept her mouth shut, refusing to let them hear her cry.
She swung her cane wildly, but her mind was entirely gone, the mansion suddenly becoming a maze of unfamiliar corners and spaces.
The sounds of footsteps followed heavily behind her.
"Isabella?" Kian’s voice was closer now, accompanied by the rustle of clothes being pulled on in a hurry.
But she didn’t respond, instead she tried to run, her heart beating fast against her ribs like a trapped bird, but her foot caught on the runner rug.
Before she could find her balance, large hands locked onto her upper arms, grabbing her roughly at the edge of the first step.
The paper she was holding fell from her hand onto the stairs.
"What are you doing here?" Kian’s breath was hot against her ear, smelling faintly of the wine he always loved.
"You’re supposed to be at the hospital until four. Why did Luke let you back early?"
Isabella twisted in his grip, his fingers burying deep into her flesh. "Let go of me!" Her voice cracked as she struck blindly behind her, her knuckles hitting his chest.
"Let me go, Kian! Leave me alone!"
His grip softened instantly, his fingers loosening to the gentle touch he used whenever she had a panic attack.
"Hey, calm down, look at me. It’s a misunderstanding, sweetheart. You’re worked up over nothing."
’Nothing really? How stupid do you think I am?’ Isabella wondered silently.
"Cut the act already, Kian," Alice said, her heels clicking out of the bedroom. She sounded completely calm, even amused.
"We don’t need to lie anymore. Just tell her."
Kian’s hands dropped away from Isabella’s skin so fast she staggered forward a half-step.
Even as agitated as she was, she could hear Alice walking up to him, the rustle of smooth fabric, and then the unmistakable sound of a satisfied moan and their lips parting after a deep kiss.
"Everything was a plan from the start, Bella," Alice said, leaning against Kian.
"The loyal bodyguard routine, the sweet husband who took care of you when your eyes stopped working, the grieving friend after your dad’s estate got hit. All of it."
Isabella stood paralyzed, the air leaving her lungs. "Kian?" she whispered into the blurry haze.
"Is it true?"
He did not say a word. His silence stayed in the hallway like something heavy.
"He wanted the properties, you idiot," Alice scoffed, her tone dripping with scorn mixed with irritation.
"You signed everything over to him six months ago because you were too helpless to manage it yourself. You have absolutely nothing left."
A wild, undiluted anger took over Isabella’s body.
She lunged forward, towards the shadow of Kian she could make of. Her hands smacked against his chest, hitting him repeatedly with weak desperate fists while a loud wail tore from her throat.
"You monster! I loved you! I gave you everything!"
Kian didn’t even move, letting her blows fall like rain on stone until Alice stepped in.
A sharp palm cracked across Isabella’s cheek, the force of the slap sending her sideways. Her hip smashed into the wooden banister, and she slid down against the edge of the stairs, her cane clattering down the steps.
"Alice, stop it," Kian muttered, his tone flat. He reached down, his fingers catching Isabella’s elbow to pull her up, but she violently slapped his hand away, sobbing into her palms.
"Don’t touch me!"
Kian let out a long sigh, his voice dropping into a cold ruthless register she had never heard before.
"Look, there are no hard feelings, Isabella. But let’s be real. You were never going to sustain the Kingston wealth anyway with your condition. The board was already looking to push you out. I’m better off managing the company."
"And the final part was to get rid of you permanently," Alice added, a small giggle slipping through her words. "But Kian here keeps hesitating."
"I’m not hesitating," Kian snapped back, his voice taking on a playful defensive edge as if they were arguing over groceries.
"I’m being careful. If she dies right after a hospital visit, the public investigates. I told you we need to wait for a while."
The playful cruelty of their bickering hit Isabella like a physical blow.
’I can’t stay here. I need to get out.’
She dragged herself away from them, her fingernails clawing at the carpet as she scrambled backward toward the lower level.
"Well, she knows now, so we might as well finish the job," Alice said. Her footsteps moved closer to the stairs as her eyes spotted.
Isabella’s foot slipped over the lip of the top step. She lunged backward, trying to grip the railing, but Kian spoke again,
"Wait. We can keep her alive. If she stays compliant and shuts her mouth, we can find a clinic upstate. No one is going to believe a crazy blind woman anyway."
"Never!" Isabella screamed, her voice hoarse.
She threw herself down the first few steps, trying to slide, but her balance failed completely.
Her body rolled over with brutal force, tumbling down the grand staircase, her shoulder smashing into the wooden balusters until she cracked hard against the marble landing at the bottom.
Something in her left wrist snapped, a sharp white-hot flash of pain blinding her mind.
She gasped loudly, struggling to breathe. She rolled onto her stomach, using her one good hand to drag her limp lower body toward the sitting room by sheer memory.
’My baby.’
Behind her, a wet trail of blood smeared across the white floor from a gash on her forehead.
Above her, the steady thud of Kian’s footsteps descended the stairs, unhurried and calm.
"I’ve been keeping a little something just in case," Alice murmured from the steps, handing over her present to Kian. "And finally we get to use it."
The loud click of a gun rang out in the entryway.
Isabella’s stomach plummeted. They were really going to do it. They were going to murder her in her own home.
’No, No, I can’t die here, I have to get out’
She crawled faster, her legs kicking uselessly against the floor tiles, her chest heaving as she wept.
Kian’s shadow fell over her. His foot stepped directly onto her broken wrist, pinning her to the floor.
Isabella shrieked, the agony blinding her, but he merely reached down, his fingers winding into her hair to yank her head back.
"Please," Isabella choked out.
"Please, Kian. I’m pregnant. It’s your baby. Spare the child, please. I have the test results, it’s somewhere here."
Alice eyes caught the sight of the paper lying on the floor at the edge of the stairs. She picked it up, hiding it from Kian and laughed loudly from the bottom step.
"Oh, please. She’s lying through her teeth. Didn’t the doctor diagnosed you with infertility last winter? Nice try, Bella."
Kian looked down at her face, his features completely blank. He assumed she was just begging for sympathy, shoving the thought of a kid away. He pressed the cold circle of the muzzle directly against her temple.
"I really have nothing against you, Isabella," he whispered, leaning down until his lips brushed her ear. "Except that I always thought you didn’t deserve any of this wealth. Your dad was an arrogant bastard, too."
Isabella closed her eyes, her breath hitching.
Hearing those words, something inside Isabella simply died. The remaining will to fight or live vanished from her limbs.
She stopped struggling against his foot.
The phantom warmth of her father’s hand seemed to touch her shoulder, and every memory of her life with Kian flashed through her mind like a broken reel of film.
She secretly wondered if he had ever loved her, even for a single second, before the enormous weight of her regrets rushed in.
She wished she had never met him. She wished she had listened to her father’s warnings when he insisted the bodyguard was a leech. All she had ever wanted was to feel safe.
’Dad... You warned me but I was too foolish’
’I wish I hadn’t fallen in love with Kian.’
’I wish I could change my fate.’
"Goodbye, Isabella," Kian said.
Bang!
The bullet tore through her skull point-blank. Isabella felt her consciousness shatter, her body jerking once before falling perfectly still on the blood-soaked floor.
Her last breath left her lips with a single, heavy tear, carrying her final, desperate wish into the void.
The world went silent. There was no more pain, no wet trail of blood, no terrifying sound of laughter. Only an absolute, thick darkness that felt entirely detached from her physical form.
Then, a strange luminescence flared before her.
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