Chapter 3: The Shame

Bella pov

I turned to leave, but Jade's voice stopped me at the threshold.

"Oh, and Bella?" She smiled, sweet and poisonous. "Mother and Father are on their way. I called them the moment I saw you. They'll want to discuss your behavior tonight, I'm sure. Your little scene has been quite embarrassing for the family."

My parents. Of course she'd called them. Of course they'd side with her, just like they always did.

"Let them come," I said quietly, my hand moving to cradle my stomach. "At least they'll see what kind of man they sold me to."

"They'll see a desperate daughter making wild accusations," Jade corrected. "And they'll be disappointed once again."

The words hit their mark, but I didn't let her see it. I walked out of that office with my head high, my wedding dress trailing behind me like a ghost, James following at a respectful distance.

The hallway stretched before me, long and dark, lined with portraits of Black family ancestors who stared down with cold judgment. I could hear voices behind me, Jade and Caleb talking in low tones, probably planning what to say to my parents.

My hand pressed harder against my barely-there bump, protective and fierce despite everything.

"I'm keeping you," I whispered. "I don't care what he says. I'm keeping you."

James cleared his throat softly behind me. "Ma'am, if you need anything"

"I need my parents not to come here." I stopped walking, turned to face him. "Can you tell me how long I have?"

His expression flickered with sympathy. "Mr. Hart said they'd arrive within the hour."

One hour. Sixty minutes until my parents walked through those doors and took Caleb's side, just like Jade knew they would. Sixty minutes until they called me a liar and an embarrassment and whatever else Jade had primed them to say.

"Thank you, James." I started walking again, faster now. "You can go. I won't run away." Not yet, anyway.

He hesitated, then nodded and disappeared down a side corridor. The moment he was gone, I hitched up my dress and ran, my heels clicking frantically against marble as I navigated the maze of hallways to my wing of the estate.

My rooms were beautiful and empty, decorated in shades of cream and gold that I'd never chosen. I'd lived here for few months and left no mark, no trace of myself. It was like I'd never existed here at all.

I went straight to my closet, pulled down the single suitcase I'd brought from my old life, and started throwing clothes inside. My hands shook so badly I could barely grip the hangers.

Think, Bella. Think. My parents will arrive soon. They'd take Caleb's side, maybe even support his demand that I "take care of" the pregnancy. My father would threaten me with financial ruin if I didn't comply. My mother would call me dramatic, manipulative, desperate. And I had nowhere to go.

No money of my own—Caleb had never set up the account he'd promised. No friends in this city—I'd been too busy being invisible to make any. No one who would believe my side of the story over the word of Caleb Black and his powerful soon-to-be mistress.

I was trapped. A knock echoed through my suite, sharp and commanding.

"Bella." My father's voice, cold and authoritative. "Open this door. Now."

They were already here. Jade must have called them before she'd even gone to Caleb's office. This whole thing had been planned, orchestrated, a trap I'd walked into with my eyes closed and my heart stupidly, pathetically open.

"Bella Hart, I will not ask again."

My hand moved to the doorknob, then stopped. Through the door, I could hear my mother's voice, high and irritated.

"I told you she'd cause problems, Richard. I told you she wasn't sophisticated enough for this kind of marriage."

Something inside me snapped. Not broke—broke implied it could be fixed. This was different. This was the moment every last thread of hope, every desperate wish for my family's love, simply disintegrated into ash.

I pulled my hand back from the door and locked it instead.

"Bella!" My father's fist hammered against the wood. "Open this door immediately, or I swear to God"

"Or what?" I called back, surprised by the steadiness in my own voice. "You'll disown me? You already sold me. What's left?"

Silence, then my mother's sharp intake of breath.

"How dare you," she hissed. "After everything we've done for you, after the opportunities we've given you, this is how you repay us? By humiliating this family with your accusations and your desperate lies?"

"Lies?" I pressed my palm against the locked door, tears streaming down my face. "Jade was sitting in his lap. I saw them."

"Jade was conducting business," my father snapped. "Something you wouldn't understand, being that you've never contributed anything of value to this family."

The casual cruelty in his voice shouldn't have surprised me. It didn't, not really. But it still hurts.

"I'm pregnant," I said quietly. "With Caleb's child."

"Bullshit." My mother's voice was sharp. "You're making that up for sympathy, for leverage. It won't work, Bella. We raised you better than this."

"You didn't raise me at all." The truth spilled out, bitter and freeing. "You barely remembered I existed until you needed someone to sell to save your company."

"That's enough." My father's voice dropped to the dangerous tone I remembered from childhood, the one that meant consequences. "You have one hour to pack your things and leave this house. If you're not gone by then, I'll have security remove you myself."

My heart stopped. "What?"

"You're an embarrassment to this family," my mother added, her words muffled by the door but no less cutting. "You've humiliated us for the last time. Consider yourself no longer a Hart."

They were disowning me. On my wedding night, pregnant and alone, they were throwing me away like garbage.

"You can't" My voice broke. "Where am I supposed to go?"

"That's not our problem anymore." My father's footsteps retreated down the hall. "One hour, Bella. After that, you're trespassing."

I slid down the door until I was sitting on the floor, my wedding dress billowing around me like a cloud. Through the wood, I could hear my mother's heels clicking away, and I could hear Jade's voice greeting them in the hallway.

"Poor thing," Jade was saying. "She's been so unstable lately. I'm worried about her mental health, truly."

One hour. Sixty minutes to pack a life, to figure out where to go with no money and no one. Sixty minutes until I was officially homeless. My hand moved to my stomach again, that automatic protective gesture that was already becoming second nature.

"It's okay," I whispered to the tiny life growing inside me. "I'll figure this out. I'll protect you. I promise."