He Cheated On Me Thinking My Wealth Was His—So I Kicked Him Out of the Billionaire Game Chapter 10
But the next second, he rushed to say.
“Elise, did they arrest Cora?”
“I’m not begging for her.”
“I just think she’s not right in the head.”
“Elise, you raised her.”
“Can’t you…”
I looked at Julian and felt something heavy settle in my chest. Exhaustion.
“Julian. You and Cora cut from the same cloth.”
“Both of you are snakes.”
Julian’s eyes welled up on the spot.
“Elise, I know I messed up.”
“It was a moment of weakness.”
“I’ve always loved you.”
“Cora was just something new.”
Then he dropped to his knees right there in the hospital hallway.
“Give me one more chance.”
“I’ll be a good husband. A good father.”
“A kid needs his dad.”
I looked down at him.
The Julian who used to be so proud. Now kneeling like a stray dog in a hospital hallway.
If this had happened before, maybe I would’ve gone soft on him.
But now? All I felt was disgust.
“My child won’t be without a father,” I said.
“He just won’t have you as one.”
Six months later, Cora was sentenced for attempted assault with a deadly weapon.
The day of her trial, her hair was chopped short. She was gaunt.
I heard she broke down crying in the courtroom when the verdict came down.
Julian didn’t end up anywhere better.
The connections he’d built through the Whitmores? Gone overnight.
Last I heard, he took a job as a project consultant at some small firm.
His monthly paycheck wasn’t even what he used to spend on a single dinner out.
He came looking for me so many times.
Sent roses. Wrote letters. Knelt on the driveway of the Whitmore house.
I never saw him.
Elliott burned every single letter for me.
The day I went into labor, Elliott stayed outside the delivery room the whole time.
When the baby came out, his cry was loud.
The nurse held him up and smiled. “A very healthy little boy.”
When Elliott held him, he was almost afraid to squeeze.
That man, always so tough. His eyes stayed red for a long time.
He looked down at the baby in the blanket and said softly, “Uncle’s got your back.”
I lay in the hospital bed, watching the sunlight drift through the window.
I’d never felt so calm.
Later, my child took my name.
The Whitmore heir’s name was officially written into the family trust.
On the day of the Sip & See party, Julian got turned away at the hotel entrance.
From far across the room, through the crowd, he saw me holding my baby under the lights.
I was wearing a white gown. Around me were old family friends, board members, Elliott. The whole
Whitmore family.
And he was standing outside.
On the other side of a glass door.
Like an outsider who’d finally been kicked out of the game.
His eyes were red. He called my name over and over.
I didn’t look back.
The baby in my arms grabbed my finger.
So small. So soft. But so full of life.
I bent down and kissed his forehead.
I used to think marriage was the most respectable path for a woman.
But now I know.
Real respectability is never handing your fate to someone who’ll throw it away.
Julian thought that marrying me made him one of us.
But he forgot.
I was the one who opened the door.
And I could be the one to close it.
