The Billionaire’s Rejected Wife

Amelia didn’t remember how long she had been walking. The rain had soaked through her clothes, but she barely noticed. Her suitcase rolled behind her, bumping against the pavement with every step. She kept walking. Because if she stopped, she was afraid she would turn around. And if she turned around, she might go back to Damian. She couldn’t do that. Not this time. Three years. She had spent three years loving a man who never loved her back. She had spent three years waiting for the smallest piece of affection from him. A phone call. A smile. A simple I missed you. She had begged for crumbs, and Damian had made her feel grateful for them. Never again. Amelia stopped beneath the roof of a closed café and finally allowed herself to cry. She covered her mouth with her hand as a sob escaped. “Why wasn’t I enough?” She hated herself for asking the question. Because deep down, she knew the answer. It wasn’t that she wasn’t enough. Damian simply didn’t want her. And t

Amelia didn’t look back. Not when the rain soaked through her dress. Not when the expensive heels she had once carefully chosen for Damian’s approval began to hurt her feet. And definitely not when her phone started ringing for the third time. She knew who it was. Damian. For three years, she had waited for that man to call her because he wanted to hear her voice. Now that she had finally walked away, he suddenly couldn’t stop calling. Amelia pressed the phone against her palm and watched Damian’s name disappear from the screen. She wouldn’t answer. Not tonight. Maybe not ever. She lifted her face toward the rain and closed her eyes. Three years. Three years of being Damian Blackwood’s wife while feeling like a stranger in his house. Three years of watching him walk past her like she was invisible. Three years of convincing herself that if she loved him enough, one day he would love her back. And now it was over. She had signed the papers. She w

For several seconds, Amelia couldn’t breathe. Her eyes remained fixed on the screen. The woman in the photograph was standing beneath the shadow of a large tree, her face turned slightly toward the security camera. Older. Thinner. But unmistakable. The same dark eyes. The same beauty mark beneath her left eye. The same face Amelia had spent seventeen years trying to remember. Her mother. Alive. “No,” Amelia whispered. Damian tightened his grip around her waist when her knees weakened. “Amelia.” She pushed away from him. “No.” She grabbed Marcus’s phone. “Play it again.” Marcus hesitated. “Play it!” He replayed the footage. The woman appeared again. She walked through the side entrance of the mansion with two men following behind her. Amelia stared at the screen. Her mother walked like she belonged there. Like she had been there before. Like she knew exactly where she was going. Amelia’s heart pounded. “Stop.” Marcus paused the video. She zoomed in. The

The voice continued.“And if you want to know who he really was…”A pause.“Go to Room 17.”The line went dead.Amelia stared at the phone.For several seconds, she couldn’t move.Room 17.Her fingers tightened around the device.“What the hell is in Room 17?”She looked toward the mansion.The enormous black gates stood open behind her, revealing the long driveway leading into Damian’s estate.She had lived here for three years.Three years of knowing every hallway.Every staircase.Every room she was allowed to enter.But Room 17?She had never heard of it.Amelia swallowed.The message about her mother had already been enough to shake her.Now this.Someone knew something about Damian.Something they wanted her to discover.She should have turned around.She should have called Damian.Instead, Amelia stepped through the gates.Her heels clicked against the marble floor as she entered the mansion.Everything looked exactly as it always did.Cold.Expensive.Untouchable.But tonight,

The cabinet door opened.Amelia froze.Damian stood on the other side.For one terrifying second, neither of them spoke.His eyes dropped to her trembling hands.Then to the black box.Then back to her face.“Amelia.”She stood slowly.“Don’t.”Damian’s expression hardened.“Get out.”Her eyes widened.“Excuse me?”“You shouldn’t have come here.”Amelia let out a bitter laugh.“Funny. That’s the second time someone has told me that tonight.”Damian stepped into the room and closed the door behind him.Amelia immediately looked toward Richard.He was gone.Her stomach dropped.“Where is he?”Damian didn’t answer.“Where is Richard?”“Who told you about this room?”“Answer me!”Damian’s jaw tightened.“Amelia, you need to leave.”“No.”She held up the photograph.“I’m not leaving until you tell me why my mother was standing beside you seventeen years ago.”Damian’s eyes fell on the picture.For a moment, something flashed across his face.Pain.Then it disappeared.“Give me that.”Ameli