The Billionaire’s Bride: Our Vows Do Not Matter

Cathleen’s gaze was ice, her form rigid as she confronted the impossible scene before her. The weight of her stare pinned Xavier down, even as he cradled the infant-allegedly theirs-in his arms. Her lips trembled, a single tear carving a path down her flushed cheek. Anguish and disbelief warred in her eyes.

“Xavier, I know I blamed you for her death, but this baby isn’t our Bella,” she asserted, her voice laced with a venomous mix of sorrow and accusation. She turned on her heel, desperate to escape the torment of his deception.

“Cathleen, stop!” Xavier’s plea sliced through the thickening silence, raw and pleading.

“Xavier, I know you want to make it up to me,” she spat out, halting but not turning to face him. “But bringing another baby can’t change anything.”

“Look at her,” he commanded, closing the gap between them, his voice a mix of steel and desperation. “You don’t have to touch her; just look at her.”

She stood immobile as if her feet were cemented to the floor. Xavier edged closer, the baby’s innocence standing in stark contrast to the heavy air of betrayal.

“Please.” His word hung between them, a single plea wrapped in vulnerability.

Bella, as if sensing the gravity of the moment, chose then to open her eyes-verdant pools mirroring Cathleen’s own. A gasp escaped Cathleen; her legs betrayed her, buckling like fragile twigs under the weight of her body. She sank to the floor, her hands trembling, reaching out to steady herself against the cold reality.

“Xavier…” Her voice was a whisper, an echo of lost hope. “How come you told me she was dead? You told me my baby was dead, and I believed you. Why?” Her words were a choked sob, and her body was shaking with the force of her grief and confusion.

She collapsed to the floor, a crumpled figure awaiting answers from the man who held fragments of her shattered world in his hands.

Xavier crouched beside her, the hardness in his eyes melting into something that looked like… regret? Cathleen didn’t want to see it. She didn’t want to feel it. However, it clawed at her, demanding attention.

“The drugs that almost killed you and Bella,” he whispered, his voice hoarse. “I thought you took them…”

“Thought I what?” she snapped, the hurt surging like a tidal wave. Her gaze was icy as she glared at him through her tears. “You thought I’d poison myself? Kill our baby.”

He hesitated, then shook his head, his mouth finding Bella’s tiny fist and drawing it gently to his lips. An act of tenderness that seemed so out of place in the chaos of betrayal. “When you accused me,” he murmured against her skin. “I knew. It couldn’t be you. I saw how you were struggling; I even thought you might run mad.”

Cathleen’s heart pounded in her chest, a wild rhythm that threatened to break free. “So you think I’m some vindictive bitch?” She choked on a sob, her body wracked with emotion. “To spite you? Because of Olivia?”

“Cat, I was wrong.” He met her gaze, his own eyes brimming with unshed tears. “Bella… she fought Cat, just like you. I couldn’t let you see her dying. I couldn’t let you lose hope. I knew if I let you see her in that condition, you could have told me to let her go.” He said and went on, “I couldn’t let go; I just couldn’t, Cat.”

She watched him, silent, as he confessed, his words barely more than whispers. His admission cut deep, each syllable like a blade twisting in her gut.

“Every day,” Xavier continued, his voice cracking, “I prayed. For her. For us. She was our glue, Cat. Our fucking chance.”

“Chance?” she spat. The irony wasn’t lost on her. Hope had been a rare commodity between them, always slipping through their fingers like sand. And yet, here he was, spewing fantasies of unity and redemption.

“I refused to let her go,” he said, his voice barely audible over the crushing silence. “Because she’s ours, Cat. She’s us.”

“Us?” Cathleen’s breath hitched, her mind racing. Was there even an ‘us’ to speak of? A twisted love, mired in mistrust and pain.

“I thought she’d bring us together; we might somehow learn to love each other with her around. I know I didn’t know you before her, but I just had that hope that she was going to be our hope. God damn it, Xavier,” she cursed, the weight of her world collapsing around her. “You can’t just play God with our lives. With her life.”

He reached out, his hand trembling as he wiped away a rogue tear from her cheek. “I know, Cat. Fuck, I know.”

Their baby-Bella-stirred between them, oblivious to the wreckage of her parents’ love. Unaware that her very existence was the eye of the storm they were caught in,

“Bella is our light, Cat. She fought for us.” Xavier’s voice broke, raw with emotion. “For her too.”

Cathleen’s resolve wavered, the fury and pain blending into a dangerous cocktail of desire and desperation. Could they salvage anything from this ruin?

“Fight,” she echoed, her voice a mere thread. In that moment, vulnerability stripped them bare, leaving nothing but the fractured pieces of their lives. And maybe, just maybe, a sliver of hope was Bella.Property of Nô)(velDr(a)ma.Org.

Xavier’s gaze bore into Cathleen, his words like a serrated blade slicing the tension. “I didn’t want to fight you, Cat. I didn’t have the energy,” he said, the ragged sound of his voice betraying his worn-out spirit.

Her eyes, as red-rimmed and sharp as cut glass, locked onto his. “You kept her away from me. My baby.”

“Because I wanted you to see a baby, not a shell.” His hands were clenched, veins etching deep lines across them. “Not a fucking reminder of what could’ve been lost.”

She flinched at the rawness in his tone, the room suffocating with unsaid words and recriminations. “Dora?” she spat, her voice stinging like acid.

“Arrested. She might get out, but that bitch is never stepping foot here again,” Xavier ground out, a promise laced with venom. “You and Bella-you’re my fucking world, Cat.”

“Dora’s got nothing on Olivia,” Cathleen choked out, the name like poison on her tongue. “She has your son.”

His denial was immediate and vehement. “Bullshit. Since Miami, there’s been no one else but you. Except…” He hesitated, his face contorting. “The rape case. I still don’t know what happened that night. If I did sleep with that woman, but I have never touched Olivia, and God be my witness, I don’t know what happened with the girl from the Brown family. That night, I vowed, Cat, to be yours and yours only… And be a better man and husband for you.”

“Vowed to be a better man for me?” Her laugh was bitter and hollow. “Save your vows for someone who buys that crap.”

He moved closer, settling beside her on the cold floor. Their proximity is a dangerous dance of heat and ice. “Just look at her, Cat. Our little girl.”

Cathleen’s breath hitched as she extended her trembling arms. The baby, a bundle of warmth and innocence, settled against her. “She has your whole face,” she murmured, a reluctant chuckle escaping her lips.

“And your eyes,” Xavier added softly, the ghost of a smile touching his features. “Now, would you just breastfeed our little girl? I’m sure she is dying to get to know her mother.” Cathleen chuckled nervously, wiped her tears, and extended her hands as she took the girl from Xavier. “I hate that she has your whole face,” Cathleen says, chuckling nervously.

In that moment, as he kissed Bella’s forehead and then Cathleen’s tear-stained cheek, the world outside their fractured bubble ceased to exist. They were just them-flawed, broken, but irrevocably bound by the tiny heartbeat nestled between them. “We are not perfect, but let’s make this marriage perfect and give our little ray of hope a happy family,” Xavier says, and Cathleen smiles and nods.