Bella

A dispatch rider dropped a divorce paper on my table the moment I opened my eyes. I was in a hospital room following Lincoln pushing me out of his room to protect Jenna after I had requested a divorce. 

I had wanted to attack her. To hurt her like she always claimed that I did. And in doing so, he had shoved me with enough force that I landed face-first on the staircase outside his room, my body rolling helplessly down the steps.

“Miss Bella Hayes…” the doctor called as she walked in, just as the dispatch rider stepped out of the room.

“Bella Dean,” I corrected quietly.

I knew she would still mistake me for Lincoln’s wife. She had been the Hayes family doctor once. Slowly, I lowered my gaze back to the divorce papers in my hands, my fingers trembling as disbelief weighed heavily on my chest.

 I couldn’t believe that Lincoln had subjected me to such humiliation, to the disrespect of having a dispatch rider deliver divorce papers to me like I was nothing more than a stranger.

I watched the doctor approach the bed. Her face was pale, her expression tight, as though she was carrying news she didn’t want to deliver. Something was wrong. I could feel it settling in my bones.

“What is it now?” I managed to ask, feigning ignorance as I stared at her in confusion, though my heart had already begun to race.

I hadn’t even asked about the man who brought me here. After I fell down the stairs and no one helped me or called an ambulance, I had forced myself out of the Hayes mansion, bleeding and dizzy, my vision blurring with every step. I remembered dragging myself onto the road, determined to get to the hospital on my own, before collapsing. The last thing I recalled was a man stopping his car and rushing toward me.

“Congratulations, Bella Dean,” the doctor began softly. “You are two months pregnant…”

She paused and my world tilted.

Pregnant?

How was that even possible? I had clearly overheard Lincoln saying he had undergone a vasectomy, to make sure I would never get pregnant. And after telling me he wanted us to try for a baby, we had never had sex again. So what were the odds that I was suddenly pregnant with his child?

“The babies aren’t in a good state, Bella,” she continued carefully. “You need to stay away from stress and anything that could impact your belly or your kidney. The kidney donation you underwent years ago might flare up and affect the pregnancy.”

I forced myself to nod as she walked away, following a nurse who had rushed in to call her for another patient. I sat there, frozen.  I wasn’t just pregnant but was carrying twins. Just how was that possible?

I picked up my phone from beside the bed, then slowly turned my head to look at the divorce papers lying on the other side of the mattress.

Lincoln was divorcing me.

And he was leaving me with nothing except my father’s shares in his family’s company.

That was all I had to my name if I chose to walk away from the marriage. Eight percent rights. Eight percent of a life I had sacrificed everything for.

According to the file, I had tried to harm Jenna, and this was his punishment. The only way to escape it was to return and kneel before her and plead for forgiveness. And on top of that, I was expected to accept carrying children for them. Their children. I would be reduced to a surrogate, expected to carry babies so I wouldn’t lose the Hayes family’s backing entirely.

I scoffed softly as I read, unsure whether to scream or laugh. I couldn’t even picture Lincoln’s face as he sent something like this to me, of all people.

What was the use of telling him about my pregnancy when he didn’t even care to know how I was, yet had cared enough to track my location and send a dispatch rider to deliver divorce papers to my hospital bed? The realization felt like a bitter bile crawling up my throat.

My phone suddenly buzzed.

My heart jumped as I checked it, foolishly believing he had come to his senses, begging for time to give an apology.

Instead, my breath caught as I saw a news headline.

Lincoln Hayes’ proposal to Jenna Rivera.

It was in the same private and expensive dinner setting he had once prepared for her years ago, just like the one she had rejected back then. His mother was smiling brightly in the photo. So was his sister. Even his father, whom I had thought would oppose this, showed no trace of disapproval on his face.

I stared at the screen, my chest aching as reality crushed down on me.

The door to the ward room suddenly flew open, the sound sharp and jarring enough to make my heart jump.

I lifted my head weakly, my vision still blurry from pain and exhaustion, and watched as a man walked in with confident, unhurried steps. For a moment, I simply stared at him, my mind scrambling to place his face, to understand why a stranger would walk into my hospital room like he belonged there.

I thought hard, forcing my foggy thoughts to cooperate.

He looked familiar.

Not just because he was the one who had brought me to the hospital after everything that happened, but because there was something unsettling about him. An uncanny resemblance to someone from my past. Someone I felt like I had known years ago. Someone my memory kept reaching for but couldn’t quite grasp.

“Lincoln Hayes’ conglomerate has already processed your resignation letter, as instructed by the boss,” he said calmly, his voice devoid of sympathy. “You were absent from work for one week, which resulted in your termination. You’ve been replaced by Charles Rivera.”

As he spoke, he extended an envelope toward me.

My breath hitched when I saw the brown and thick envelope, sealed neatly with the unmistakable Hayes Conglomerates logo.

The same envelope they handed to every employee they discarded.

The same envelope given to people whose usefulness had expired.

My fingers trembled as I took it, my eyes flicking back up to him. How did he know this? How was he able to access such information. From my employment records, to termination and replacement, and bring it all the way here?

I stared at his face again, searching for answers.

He looked at me like he already knew me. Like this wasn’t our first meeting. And even though I felt the same strange familiarity, I couldn’t remember where or how our paths had crossed before.

“The Hayes family is thrilled,” he continued, his lips curving into something that wasn’t quite a smile. 

“They’re happy that an orphan like you has finally stopped leeching off them. Their son is now free to marry his longtime girlfriend from a wealthy family and with international backing.”

Each word struck like a slap.

“Sorry to break it to you, Bella Dean,” he added coolly, “but all these years, you were nothing more than a tool. A replacement. Someone the Hayes family used to elevate themselves and erase every scandal that threatened their precious reputation.”

My chest tightened painfully.

None of it made sense. Or maybe it made too much sense and my mind was desperately trying to reject it.

Before I could speak, he handed me his phone.

“What—” My voice died in my throat.

My mouth slowly fell open as my eyes locked onto the screen.

Shock coursed through me as I stared at what was displayed before me. My heart pounded violently against my ribs, not just because of what I was seeing, but because of him. This unknown man who was revealing truths I had lived years without knowing.

Truths about the Hayes, about my parents and me.

“Who are you?” I finally found my voice after what felt like an eternity. “How do you know all this? How do you know things about my parents, things I didn’t even know myself?”

“That’s not the right question to ask right now, Bella,” he whispered.

I stared at him, my entire body tense.

“How do we destroy the Hayes?” he continued softly. “That’s the first question you should be asking me. They destroyed your life. Everything you loved. Everything you held dear. Are you ready to do whatever it takes to destroy them?”

“Who are you?” I asked again, firmer this time. There was no way a random man could know this much or speak with such certainty.

I was pregnant with Lincoln’s children. I wanted to protect them.

I wanted to keep them far away from him and his family, to raise them myself without ever letting the Hayes know they existed.

I wanted revenge. I wanted justice. I wanted to pay them back for every tear and humiliation.

But this stranger’s words were too calculated to ignore.

“Donovan Wade,” he answered.

The name hit me like a lightning strike. My entire body went rigid.

I searched my memory frantically, replaying fragments of the past, forcing myself to remember. 

My breath caught.

Donovan Wade.

One of my father’s closest friends.

The man who had been in the same car accident that killed my parents.

I had been told he died too.

But he hadn’t.

He had been sitting at the back of the car with me that night. 

Before I could say another word nor ask the thousands of questions burning inside me, he raised his hand, stopping me.

“Marry me, Bella,” he said quietly, his eyes locked onto mine. “Let’s take our revenge together.”