Chapter2 : The Truth unveiled

Bella's hands shook as she pressed the elevator button. The gilded numbers climbed thirty-seven, thirty–eight, -nine. Each floor taking her further from the man who'd just destroyed her world.

The doors opened to their penthouse floor.

“Bella!”

She turn around. Nathel stood in the hallway, his usually perfect appearance disheveled. His tie hung loose, shirt wrinkled from where he'd gripped it.

“We're not done talking.”

“Yes, we are.” She fumbled with her keycard. “I'm done being your emotion thrash bin.”

“Don't walk away from me.”

The card slipped from her trembling fingers. She Before could bend down, his hand caught her wrist.

“Let's go.”

“Not until you tell me the truth.”

She yanked free, fire blazing in her dark eyes. “The truth? You want the truth, Nathel? I've been faithful to a man who treats me like I'm invisible. I've spent three years loving someone who can't even look at me without flinching.”

“Faithful?” He laughed bitterly. “Right.”

“Yes, faithful!” She shoved him hard against the wall. “I haven't so much as looked at another man since our wedding day. Remember that? When you promised to love and cherish me?”

Something flickered across his face, pain, maybe regret but it vanished too quickly.

“Pretty words don't mean anything.”

“They meant something to me.” Her voice cracked. “When you said you loved me at the altar, I believe you. When you promised to be mine forever, I thought you meant it.”

The memory hit like a physical blow. Three years ago, Saint Patrick's cathedral. Bella in ivory silk, trembling as she walked down. The aisle toward the man she thought was her salvation.

”Do you, Nathaniel James Blackwood, take Isabella Maria Delgado to be your lawfully wedded wife”

”I do.” His voice had been steady sure. His eyes had held hers like he was memorizing her face.

”And do you, Isabella, take Nathaniel to be your lawfully wedded husband?”

”I do .” She'd whispered it like a prayer, like a promise, like a plea.

*”I love you,” he said against her lips when they kissed. “I'll love you forever.”

Forever has lasted exactly six months.

,”I meant it.” The words came out strangled. “Every word I said that day.”

,”did you?” Nathel stepped closer, his presence overwhelming in the narrow hallway. “Or was it al part of your plan?”

“What plan?”

“To trap me. To get pregnant and secure your future.”

“I didn't trap you!” She was shouting now, years streaming down her cheeks. “I fell in love with you, you bastard! I felk so hard I lost myself!”

“Still lying.”

“I'm not lying!” She pounded her fist again his chest. “I haven't been with anyone else. Ever. You're the only man I've ever loved, the only man I've ever…”

“Enough.” His hands caught her wrists, stilling her assault. “Just stop.”

“Why won't you believe me?”

“Because I know you, Bella. I know what you're capable of.”

“What I'm capable of?” She laughed through her tears. “What am I capable of, Nathel? Loving you? Trying to make this marriage work? Fighting for us when you have up before we even started?”

“You're capable of lying. Of manipulate. Of using your body to get what you want.”

The words hit like a slap. She went very still, her face draining of color.

“Is that what you think of me?”

“I think you're desperate. And desperate people do desperate things.”

“I was never desperate for anything but you.” Her voice was barely a whisper. “Your attention. Your affection. your love.”

“Well, you're not getting it.”

“I know.” She pulled her hands free. “I figured that out when you started sleeping in the guest room after our honeymoon.”

“That was…”

“What? Business? Strategy? Another way to punish me for existing?”

Nathel’s jaw tightened. “You don't understand

“

“Then explain it to me!” She grabbed his shirt, pulling him closer. “Tell me why you can't stand to touch me . Tell me why you look at me like I'm some kind of disease.”

“Because it's complicated.”

“Complicated how? We're married, Nathel. We're supposed to be partners. We're supposed to…”

“Nothing more” his voice was ice.

“That's not what you said on our wedding night.”

“I said a lot of things that night.”

“You said that you would put your best. You said we can make this work”

“I was wrong.”

The words hung between themike a death sentence. Bella stepped back, her face crumpling.

“Why? Why were you wrong?”

“Because I don't love you.” Each word was a knife.

“I never loved you. I married you because my board demanded it. Because Gavin a wife made me look stable, responsible.”

“That's not true.”

“Isn't it?”

“No.” She shook her head violently. “You're lying. You're trying to hurt me because you're scared.”

“Scared of what?”

“Of admitting you feel something for me.”

“I don't feel anything for you.”

“Then why did you make live to me six months ago?”

The question hit it's mark. Nathel composure cracked, just for a moment.

“I was drunk.”

“You were sober when you carried me to your bed. You were sober when you told me I was beautiful. You were sober when you…”

“Stop.”

“When you whispered my name like it was scared.”

“I said stop.”

“You felt something that night. I inow you did.”

“What I felt was pity.” The lie came out smooth, practiced. “You looked so pathetic begging for scraps of attention.”

The words found their target. Bella stumbled backwards like he'd struck her.

“You're lying.”

“Am I? You think I actually wanted you that night? You think I couldn't tell how desperate you were?”

“Stop it.”

“Face the truth, Bella. You threw yourself at me, and I took what was offered. Nothing more.”

“That's not…”

“And now you're trying to trap me with a baby that isn't even mine.”

“It is yours!” She was screaming now, her voice echoing off the marble walls. “I haven't been with anyone else!”

“Right. Because you're so innocent. So pure.”

“I am! At least when it comes to you!”

“Prove it.”

“How? How do I prove something you refuse to believe?”

“You can't. Because it's not true.”

“It's true.” She was sobbing now, her body shaking with the force of her tears. “I've never cheated in you. I've never even thought about it. You're the only man I've ever …”

“The only man you've ever what? Slept with?” His smile was cruel. “Come on, Bella. We both know that's not true.”

“It's true.”

“No, it's not. Because of it were true, you'd understand why this pregnancy is impossible.”

Something in his tone made her stop crying. Made her look at him with sudden, terrible clarity.

“What are you talking about?”

“I'm talking about reality, Bella. About the fact that you're claiming to carry the child of a man who can't give you one.”

“What does that mean?”

Nathel straightened his tie, his mask sliding back into place. When he spoke, his voice was steady, clinical.

“It means you picked the wrong mark, sweetheart. Because I'm sterile.”

The words hit like a physical blow. Bella's legs have out, and she slumped against the wall.

“What?”

“You heard me.” He adjusted his cufflinks with practiced precision. “I'm impotent. Have been since I was twenty-five. So unless you believe in immaculate conception, that baby isn't mine.”

The hallway soun around her. Her vision blurred, darkness creeping in at the edges.

“That's not possible.”

“It's a medical fact. Confirmed by three different specialists.”

“But we…..six months ago…”

Nathel smirk “what about six months ago?”

“We made love.”

“No, Bella.” His voice was gentle now, almost pitying. “We didn't.”

The world tilted. Everything she thought she knew, everything she believed, crumbled like sand.

“You're lying.”

“I'm not.”

“You have to b

e lying.”

“I wish I were.”

She looked up at him, this man she'd loved and lost and loved again, and saw nothing but cold , brutal honesty in his eyes.

“If you're sterile,” she whispered, then whose baby is this?”