All Chapters of In Love With The Hot Billionaire.: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

126 Chapters

~Thrown Out~

Chapter Twenty-One Camille's POV The rain started twenty minutes after I left. Of course it did, because my life had become some cruel cosmic joke where every terrible moment had to be punctuated by weather that matched my misery. I walked without direction, just away. Away from the house, away from Julien and away from the ruins of a marriage that had been broken long before tonight shattered it completely. My suitcase had a broken wheel. It dragged behind me, scraping against the pavement, the sound echoing through empty streets. Each step sent pain shooting through my ribs where Julien had kicked me. My face throbbed. Blood had dried on my lip, it cracked and it stung. The rain just kept falling. I should call Elodie. I knew that. I should pull out my phone and ask for help. But shame kept my hands in my pockets. I pulled out my phone and dialed her number. It rang then went to voicemail. I checked the time to realize it was ten pm. She would have gone to bed now and I didn

~Begging At The Family Door~

Chapter Twenty Two.I had nowhere else to go.That's what I kept telling myself as I stood outside Uncle Bernard's house three days after signing the divorce papers. My money was gone. The hotel had kicked me out that morning when I couldn't pay for another night. Everything I owned was crammed into a suitcase with a broken wheel, and I was four weeks pregnant with a baby whose father was either my abusive ex-husband or the man who'd raped me.I had nowhere else to go and I really needed help with the amount Julien required back from me. After all,they are the ones who were always demanding!So I stood on the doorstep of the house where I'd lived after my parents died, where I'd learned that love was conditional and survival meant making yourself useful, and I raised my shaking hand to knock.The sound echoed through the evening air. I knocked three times.Then footsteps approached and the door opened.Uncle Bernard stood there, his reading glasses perched on his nose, his expression

~Standing Ground For The First Time~

Chapter Twenty Three.Something inside me snapped.Not broke…snapped. Like a rubber band stretched too far, finally giving way. All the years of bending, of making myself smaller, of swallowing their cruelty and calling it love…it all released at once.I straightened my spine."No," I said.The single word hung in the air like a grenade with the pin pulled.Aunt Marie blinked. "Excuse me?""I said no." My voice was steady now, clearer than it had been in years. "I'm not going back to Julien.""Don't be stupid," Uncle Bernard said. "You have no choice. He's your husband…""Ex-husband. The divorce papers are signed. It's over." I looked at him, and saw him for what he was. He was not the benevolent uncle who'd saved me, but a man who'd seen a transaction where there should have been family. "And even if it wasn't over, I wouldn't go back. Not to a man who cheats on me, humiliates me, and hits me."Aunt Marie gasped, her hand flying to her chest in mock horror. "He hit you? Julien would

~Pills In The Dark~

Chapter Twenty FourThe hotel room was even worse than the last one.It was smaller and darker. The kind of place where the wallpaper peeled in strips and the bed creaked with every breath. But it was cheap, thirty euros a night, and I had exactly ninety euros left to my name after buying the pills. I had found the money hidden in one of my clothes.The pills sat on the nightstand now, a small white bottle with a childproof cap that had taken me three tries to open with my shaking hands.I'd walked into the pharmacy two hours ago with no real plan. Just a vague and a desperate need to make the pain stop. The pharmacist had barely looked at me as I'd asked for sleeping pills, she had handed them over with a bored expression and took my money without question.No one cared. No one saw the bruises on my face and wondered. No one noticed the hollow look in my eyes or the way my hands trembled or the fact that I was clearly someone standing on the edge of something terrible.No one cared i

~Doctor Adrien To the Rescue~

Chapter Twenty Five.Camille's POVThe first thing I felt was pain.Not the dull, constant ache I'd been living with, but sharp pain. I felt it in my arm where something was taped. I felt it in my throat that felt raw and burned and finally in my stomach that cramped and protested.I was alive.The realization came slowly. I didn't want to be alive. I'd taken the pills specifically to stop being alive and now that I'm alive,I’m disappointed. Those stupid pills weren't fast enough! I was supposed to be on my way to my mom and dad but here I was. I was breathing and existing against my will.I tried to open my eyes, but they felt glued shut. My whole body felt heavy, like I was underwater.Voices filtered through the fog. I heard familiar and unfamiliar voices."...pumped her stomach in time, but it was close. Another twenty minutes and…""Is the baby…" "Stable. For now. But we'll need to monitor closely for the next forty-eight hours," came a man’s voice that sounded familiar.The ba

~Not Completely Alone~

Chapter Twenty Six.The question punched the air from my lungs. What should I tell him? And to think, he's the friend of Julien. If I told him what happened, how would he look at me?"He's dead," I heard myself say.It wasn't technically a lie. The Julien I'd married, the man I'd thought I loved, he was dead. Had been dead for a long time, if he'd ever existed at all.Adrien's eyebrows rose slightly. "Dead.""Yes.""I see." He made a note on his tablet, and I couldn't read his expression. "My condolences."There was no warmth in the words. There was no real sympathy. Just the polite thing you said when someone mentioned death."Any other family we should contact? Someone who should know you're here?""No." The word came out harder than I intended. "No family. No one."Something shifted in his expression. Not sympathy because he didn't seem capable of sympathy. But something, maybe recognition or curiosity about why a pregnant woman would have absolutely no one to call."Very well." He

~The Weight Of Gray Eyes~

Chapter Twenty Seven The psychiatrist arrived the next morning while I was picking at bland hospital oatmeal that tasted like paste. Dr. Laurent was older, maybe sixty, with kind eyes behind wire-rimmed glasses and a gentle voice that probably worked wonders on most patients. He pulled up a chair beside my bed and opened a leather notebook."Bonjour, Mademoiselle Camille. How are you feeling today?""Alive," I said. "Against my better judgment."He smiled slightly. "I understand. May I ask you some questions about what happened?"I nodded, setting down my spoon.That's when I noticed him.Adrien stood in the corner of the room, partially hidden by the privacy curtain, holding a manila folder that a nurse must have just handed him. He was reading through it with that same clinical detachment, like I was a case file rather than a person.Like he hadn't saved my life less than twenty-four hours ago.Dr. Laurent followed my gaze. "Dr. Duval insists on being present for all psychiatric e

~The Boundaries We Cross~

Chapter Twenty-Eight.The hospital was quieter at night.I'd been drifting in and out of sleep for hours, my body exhausted but my mind refusing to fully shut down. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the pill bottle. I felt the darkness closing in and I woke up gasping, grateful and resentful in equal measure that I was still breathing.Elodie had finally gone home around nine, promising to return first thing in the morning with fresh clothes and more food. She looked exhausted. She had dark circles under her eyes from two nights of sleeping in the uncomfortable hospital chair."Go," I'd told her. "I'm fine. I promise I won't do anything stupid."She'd made me promise three more times before actually leaving.Now it was past midnight, and I was alone with my thoughts and the steady beep of the fetal monitor they'd hooked up to track the baby's heartbeat. The sound was oddly comforting. It is as proof that despite everything, the tiny life inside me was fighting to survive.Stronger th

~The Night Terror~

Chapter Twenty NineI must have dozed off eventually, because I woke to darkness and terror.The nightmare came fast. I saw Theo's face hovering over me. His hands were holding my wrists. The taste of jasmine tea suddenly surfaced along with the crushing weight of paralysis. I was back to that situation where I was unable to move, unable to scream and unable to do anything but exist in the horror.“No, please, not again…”His weight pressed me into the mattress. The sound of fabric tearing echoed in my head. My voice was trapped in my throat.Fight. You have to fight…But I couldn't. My body wouldn't obey. The darkness was swallowing me, pulling me under, drowning me while I lay there helpless.I jolted awake gasping, my heart was hammering so hard it felt like it would break through my ribs. The room spun. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't get enough air. My chest was too tight and my throat closing, panic flooded every cell.Can't breathe can't breathe can't breathe…The hospital room

~Professional Distance~

Chapter Thirty He pulled out his tablet and made notes, his fingers moved quickly across the screen.I watched him work and felt something twist in my chest. Gratitude, yes. But something else too. I felt something dangerous and inappropriate.He'd saved my life, he had stood in this room at three in the morning and talked me through a panic attack with patience and precision. He had touched me like I was something breakable but worth saving.And now he was maintaining perfect professional distance like none of it had happened. Like I was just another patient. "Where's Elodie?" I asked, suddenly realizing she wasn't here. "I thought I heard her voice earlier.""You didn't. That was me when I came in." He glanced up from his tablet. "She came to see you earlier but you were asleep so she went to the café down the street about twenty minutes ago. She said she needed fresh air and real coffee, not the hospital swill. She should be back any minute.""Oh."He made a few more notes, then

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