Chapter 3

“Seven years.”

Bella voice was hollow, empty. She slumped against the wall, staring at him like he was a stranger.

“What?”

“You said you've been sterile since you were twenty-five.” She did the math with trembling fingers. “That's seven years, Nathel. Seve years of lying to me.”

His jaw tightened. “I didn't lie.”

“You didn't tell me!”

“It wasn't your business

“Wasn't my…,” she could finish the sentence. The words stuck in her throat lie poison.

“We married for appearance. My fertility wasn't part of the contract.”

“Contract?” She pushed herself off the wall, rage replacing shock. “Is that all I am to you? A signature on a piece of paper?”

“That's all you've ever been.”

The words hit like bullets, she was beyond pain now. Beyond hurt. She was drowning in fury.

“Seven years.” She took a step toward him. “Seven years I've been blaming myself for our childless marriage.”

“Bella”

“Seven years your mother has torturing me, calling me barren, telling everyone I'm a failure as a wife.”

…..

The memories crashed over her like a tidal wave.

Eleanor Blackwood's perfectly manicured fingers drumming against the dinning table. “Still no grandchildren, Isabelle? How disappointing.

The charity luncheon where Eleanor had introduced her to every pregnant woman in sight. “This is my daughter-in-law. Still waiting for her to fulfill her duties, if you know what I means”

The Christmas dinner where Eleanor had handed her pamphlets for fertility clinics. “ perhaps you should see a specialist, dear. Nathel virility is certainly not in a question.”

The final humiliation just last month: “maybe it's time Nathel found someone more…suitable. A woman who can give him what he needs”

“Your mother. “ Bella's voice cracked. “She's been destroying me for three years, and you let her

.”

“Don't speak Ill of my mother.”

“Ill of your mother?” She laughed, the sound sharp and broken. “She called me defective, Nathel. She said I was cursing the Blackwood bloodline.”

“She's dramatic.”

“She's cruel! And you sat there and watched her tear me apart!”

“You're being hysterical.”

“Hysterical?” Bella's control snapped. She flew at him, fists pounding against his chest. “You let me think I was broken! You let me think it was my fault!”

“Stop hitting me.”

“Seven years!” Each word came with another blow. “Seven years of doctor! Seven years of tests! Seven years of thinking something was wrong with me!”

“Bella, stop,,,”

I took fertility drugs that made me sick! I had procedure that left me bleeding and broken!”

Tear streamed down her face as she attacked him. “All because you were too much of a coward to talk me the truth!”

“That's enough.”

“I begged you to touch me! I humilated myself to trying to seduce you because I thought if we just tried harder.”

“”Stop.”

“Maybe we could have a baby! Maybe I could finally be enough for you!”

Her fists were weakening now, her sobs making it hard to breathe. But she couldn't stop. Three years of pain poured out of her in waves

“I hate you.” The words came out broken, destroyed. “I hate you so much.”

“I know.”

“You destroyed me.”

“You destroyed yourself.”

She looked up at him though her tears, searching for any sign of remorse. Any hint of the man she'd falken in love with.

Nothing. Just cold, gray eyes and a face carved from stone.

“Tell me this is a lie.” her voice was barely a whisper. “Tell me you're just trying to hurt me.”

“It's not a lie.”

“Please.” She grabbed his shirt, clinging to him like a drowning woman. “Please tell me you're lying,”

”I'm not.”

“Then how…” She choked on the words. “How am I pregnant?”

“You tell me.”

The implication hit like a slap. Fresh rage bloomed in her chest, hot and consuming.

“You think I cheated.”

“I know you cheated.”

“I didn't!?”

“The explain…. The baby.”

“I can't!” She was screaming again, her voice echoing off the walls. “I don't understand any of this!”

“Because you're lying.”

“I'm not!”

“You slept with someone else and got pregnant. Now you're trying to pin it on me.”

“No!”

“It's pathetic, Bella. Even for you.”

“Stop saying that!”

*What? That you're pathetic? That you're lair?”

“Stop!” She hit him again, harder this time. “Stop calling me names!”

“Then stop lying to me!”

“I'm not lying!” Her voice broke broke on a sob. “I've never been with anyone else! Never!”

“Right.”

“It's true!”

“Then prove it.”

“How? How do I prove something that never happened?”

“You can't. Because it did happen.”

“No, it didn't!”

“Then whose baby is it Bella?” His voice was deadly quiet. “If it's not mine, and you haven't slept with anyone else, whose is it?”

She stared at him, mouth opening and closing like a fish gasping for air. No word came.

“That's what i thought.”

“I don't know.” The admission came out in in a whisper. “I don't know how this happened.”

“I do.”

“Nathaniel, please.”

“You met someone. Maybe at one of your charity events. Maybe at the gym. Maybe in the bar.”

“No.”

“You were lonely. Neglected. He paid attention to you.”

“That's not …”

“One thing led to another. You slept with him. Got pregnant.”

“Stop.”

“Now you're trying to pass his bastards off as mine.”

“Stop!” She was hitting him again, her fists connecting with his chest, his shoulders, anywhere she could reach. “Stop saying these things!”

“Because they're true?”

“Because they're not!” Tears and snot streamed down her face. She was falling apart, coming undone in the hallway of what was used to be her home. “I love you! I've only ever lived you!”

“Love.” He caught her wrists, stilling her assault. “You don't know what that wird means.”

“I do.”

“No, you don't. If you loved me, you wouldn't have betrayed me.”

“I didn't betray you!”

“If you loved me, you wouldn't be trying to trap me with another man's child.”

“It's not another man's child!”

“Prove it, Bella!”

“I can't! But that doesn't mean….”

“It means you're liar and a cheat.”

The words hung in the air between them like a poison cloud. Bella went very still, her sobs cutting off abruptly.

“What did you say? Nat.”

“You heard me.”

“You're a liar and a cheat.”

Something died in her eyes. The last spark of hope, the final thread of love, snapped like a broken wire.

“I see.”

She stepped back, smoothing down her hair with shaking hands. When she looked at him again, her face was eerily calm.

“You really believe that about me.”

“I do.”

“After three years of marriage. After everything we've been through.”

“Yes.”

“You think I'm capable of adultery.”

“I think you're capable of anything if it serves your purposes.”

She nodded slowly, like she was processing everything he'd said

.

“So that's it then.”

“Then what?”

“You really think I'm a slut.”

The word hungs between them like a blade. Nathel's face hardened.

“If the shoe fits.”

Bella flinched as if he's struck her. Fresh tears spilled down her cheeks.

“Nathaniel!”

“I can't do this anymore.” He stepped back, disgust written across his features. “I can't stand here and listen to more lies.”

“They're not lies.”

“Everything that comes out of your mouth is a lie.” His voice was ice cold. “You're carrying another man's child and trying to pass it off as mine. You're pathetic.”

“Please don't say that.”

“It's the truth.” He straightened his tie, his mask of control sliding back into place. “And I can't spend another moment in the same room as you.”

“Where are you going?”

“Away from you.” He turned toward the elevator. “I can't be around a slut.”

The word hit like a physical blow. Bella crumpled against the wall, sobbing.

“Nathaniel, wait”

But the elevator doors were already closing.

Bella skid down the wall until she was sitting on the cold marble floor, her designer dress pooling around h

er like spilled ink. Her voice echoed through the empty hallway.

Nathaniel stood in the descending elevator, his hand clenched into fists at his sides. The image of Bella's broken face burned behind his eyelids

Slut The word tasted like poison in his mouth.