Falling In Love With My Husband Who Was Delusional

My father' s life depended on a $50,000 payment my billionaire husband could easily afford. But every dollar I spent was controlled by his chief of staff, Keri-a woman who hated me and managed my life through a humiliating expense app. When my father was diagnosed with a rare leukemia, the doctors gave him one chance: an experimental treatment. The cost was exactly $50,000. Keri rejected the request, citing "non-essential family health." My husband, Axel, told me not to be "so dramatic." While I begged them to reconsider, my father died. Hours after the hospital called, Keri posted a photo of her and Axel at a gala, celebrating a business deal. Her caption read: "#PowerCouple." I left a comment. "Inspiring how you celebrate wins on the day my father died because you withheld the $50,000 he needed. Your efficiency is unparalleled. Perhaps you'll find it equally efficient to process these divorce papers."

I spent three years as the hidden mistress of Wall Street tyrant Damon Vaughn. Our no-strings arrangement meant I was his to command, a secret he kept locked away in the dark. Then I saw the Instagram post. It was Damon, raising a champagne glass with his perfect high-society fiancée, the caption hinting that wedding bells were just around the corner. I ended it that night, leaving his black card on his nightstand and blocking his number for good. But a man like Damon doesn't accept being told no. He retaliated by buying the entire building my tech startup was in. He cornered me on the street, slamming his fist into my car's hood, his face a mask of terrifying rage. He was a possessive monster, planning his perfect marriage while refusing to release me from my cage. The humiliation of being his disposable secret burned hotter than my anger. To finally break him, I lied about having a blind date. But the lie became a terrifying reality when my mother forced me into that exact date. Now, Damon has kidnapped me, and as he shoves me out of his car in front of the restaurant, his voice is a low, dangerous whisper meant only for me. "Remember who you belong to."

I returned to New York with two scuffed suitcases and a broken heart, ready to end my three-year exile as a ghost wife. All I wanted was to sign the divorce papers, move my dying mother to hospice, and vanish from the billionaire Spears family forever. But the moment I stepped into the penthouse, I saw a pair of expensive red-bottomed heels by the door that weren't mine. Carlyle, the husband who hadn't spoken to me in years, was already moving his mistress into our home before the ink on our separation agreement was even dry. The humiliation was only the beginning. Carlyle treated me like an intruder in my own house, yet he forced me to attend high-society galas as his "perfect" wife to protect his reputation. When I tried to leave, he froze my bank accounts, leaving me unable to pay for my mother’s life-saving treatment. He watched my desperation with cold, predatory eyes, flaunting his new romance in the tabloids while keeping me trapped in his freezing home. My mother’s doctors warned me she was running out of time, but Carlyle only used her illness as a leash to keep me from running. I didn't understand why he was doing this to me. I had clearly signed away the money and the name, so why wouldn't he let me go? Why did he have me watched for years if he hated me so much? Why was he flaunting another woman while refusing to sign the papers that would set us both free? What did he want from a woman he claimed to despise? When I finally cornered him with the final decree, Carlyle didn't pick up the pen. He snatched the folder, a flicker of cold triumph in his icy eyes. "The terms are wrong, Beatrix. I'm adding an employment clause. You’re going to work for me, in my office, where I can keep you under my thumb 24/7." He didn't just refuse to sign the papers; he had just turned my divorce into a permanent prison sentence.

On my twenty-fifth birthday, I discovered my boyfriend of seven years and my best friend were having an affair. They gave me matching necklaces-a sea and a mountain-the very set I had picked out for him as a symbol of our love. It was their silent confession, a confirmation of the betrayal I had just witnessed. Later that night, my best friend was attacked. I rushed to her side, only to be met with my boyfriend's fury. He accused me of being selfish and late, then broke up with me, leaving me alone and bleeding in the snow after I coughed up blood from my terminal lung cancer. He didn't see the blood. He didn't know I was dying. He just saw me as an inconvenience. My world shattered. I had been hiding my illness to spare them pain, only to find they were building their happiness on my quiet suffering. I received his call from the hospital, not out of concern for me, but because he had just discovered the truth about my cancer. He was too late. I was already on a plane to Oregon, having sent my final message: "I love you both. Always. Find your happiness. I'll be okay." This was my last gift to them-their freedom, bought with my life.

My fiancé, Jacob, crashed another woman' s wedding. I found out from a viral video while preparing his favorite dessert to celebrate our upcoming IVF cycle. It was Kierra Gates, the "struggling artist" he always claimed to pity. This wasn't the first time. Three years ago, he beat a man bloody for her, a public scandal that nearly broke us. I stood by him then, swallowing the humiliation and my friends' warnings. I even forgave him for the miscarriage his violent outburst caused. He swore it was over, that our future, our family, was all that mattered. But as I watched the video of him snatching her from the altar, his promises echoed like a cruel joke. He' d abandoned me again, on the cusp of our dream, for the same woman. My love for him, a fifteen-year constant, finally ran dry. This wasn't just another betrayal; it was the end. I picked up the phone, my hand steady. "I'd like to cancel my IVF appointment," I told the clinic. "And schedule an abortion. As soon as possible."

For three years, I was Alpha Laurence's fated mate, a title he never honored. He was in love with another woman, Rosalie, and I was just an inconvenient placeholder he refused to mark. The night my father lay dying, I begged him for the life-saving medicine he had promised to deliver. He was with Rosalie. Through our mental link, I heard her laugh in the background before he cut me off. "Stop bothering me with trivial matters," he snarled. His lover then faked an illness, pulling every senior healer away from my father's side. He died while my mate was choosing a tuxedo with another woman. My father's life was a "trivial matter" to the man who was supposed to be my other half. In his obsession, he had become an accomplice to murder. But he had no idea what I had done. Days earlier, while he was distracted by a call from her, I slipped a single page into a thick stack of documents. He signed it without reading, and with a flick of his wrist, he severed his own soul. He had just signed the Ritual of Rejection.