Alle Kapitel von THE BILLIONAIRE'S BIGGEST REGRET: Losing His Plus-size Ex: Kapitel 11 – Kapitel 20

Chapter 12Inside the quiet room, the heavy silence crept back in. Riley walked over to the side of the bed, her body still trembling slightly from the leftover adrenaline of her fight with Ashton. She looked down at Iris, who had already drifted back into a light sleep.The anger in Riley’s veins quickly cooled, leaving behind nothing but a hollow, terrifying emptiness. She collapsed into the hard armchair, burying her face in her hands. The crushing weight of her reality pressed down on her chest until she could barely draw a breath.She had no home. She had no money. The one thing that could have bought their freedom was sitting at the bottom of a city dumpster. She was completely trapped, stripped of her dignity, and entirely at the mercy of two men she despised.Buzz... Buzz...The sudden, sharp vibration of her phone against her thigh broke the silence. Riley jumped slightly, pulling the device from her pocket. Her brow furrowed as an unknown local number flashed across the

Chapter 14The ride back to the hospital went by in a blur. Riley sat in the back of the sedan, her fingers tightly gripping the brass keys inside her coat pocket. Her mind was spinning with a strange mix of relief and excitement. For the first time in ten years, she had a secret that belonged only to her and Iris. A real, safe place to live.When the car pulled up to the clinic entrance, Riley thanked the driver and stepped out onto the pavement. Her feet still throbbed inside the clean gauze, but the pain felt distant now. She walked quickly through the sliding glass doors, took the elevator up to the pediatric wing, and hurried down the corridor toward Room 402.When she pushed the door open, she found Iris watching a cartoon on the small wall TV. The color was returning to her little girl's cheeks, making her look alive and healthy again.Riley walked over, sat carefully on the edge of the mattress, and pulled the brass keys out of her pocket. She slid them gently into her daugh

Chapter 16The three days following the fight in Ashton's office were a brutal reality check for Riley. Every single hour she wasn't by Iris’s bedside, she was on her phone or walking the streets close to the clinic, desperately trying to find a job. She applied to be a waitress, a store clerk, an administrative assistant...anything that paid a steady wage.But the result was always the exact same."I'm sorry, Mrs. Wellsprings, the position has just been filled," a boutique manager told her over the phone."We can't hire you," a restaurant owner said uncaringly before hanging up.By the third afternoon, Riley sat on a bench outside the hospital, her hands shaking as she stared at her phone. She wasn't stupid. A city this size didn't suddenly run out of basic, entry-level jobs overnight. Fredrick was doing this. He was making good on his threat to ensure she never found work in this city again. He wanted to starve her and Iris to death.She looked up at the towering glass windows

Chapter 18The anger in Riley’s chest suddenly evaporated, replaced by a strange, heavy weight in her stomach. She swallowed past the dry lump in her throat, absorbing his words. He wasn't mocking her. He was protecting her pride. He knew her well enough to understand that if he simply handed her the position, her dignity would have choked her. By forcing her to walk into a blind audition, he was treating her as a professional, not a charity case."The audition is scheduled for five days from now," Ashton continued, tapping a rhythmic finger against the edge of his desk. "That gives you exactly five days to practice. Let’s be completely honest with each other, Riley...you haven't stepped onto a stage, stood in front of a professional camera, or looked at a script in ten years. You are rusty. Your instincts are buried under a decade of neglect, and you need time to shake that off. You need to prepare if you want to survive that room." Riley lifted her chin, refusing to let him see

Chapter 20The car dropped Riley off in front of a sleek, glass-fronted production studio downtown. The moment she stepped through the heavy revolving doors, the quiet comfort of the hospital vanished. It was replaced by the loud, fast energy of the entertainment world.The holding lobby was packed. Dozens of women sat on leather couches, flipping through script pages, fixing their lipstick, and looking at each other with sharp, competitive eyes. Riley felt a cold knot tighten in her stomach as she walked to the desk to sign in. Almost every woman in the room fits a very specific mold. They were young, very thin, and dressed in flashy outfits designed to turn heads.As Riley took a seat in the corner, she could feel the critical eyes of the other contestants tracking her. A pair of girls sitting across from her whispered to each other, their eyes darting to the curves of her emerald wrap dress before looking away with small, nasty smirks.The invisible scars of the last ten years b