Billionaire’s Regret: The One He Lost

“Are you actually gonna end things with Braxton Payne?”

Maxine Mason swirled the coffee in her mug, pausing a beat before answering. “Yeah. I’ve already made up my mind.”

Her best friend Sam dropped an excited hand on Maxine’s shoulder. “Finally! It’s about damn time you came to your senses! You should’ve dumped his ass ages ago. That whole ‘no strings attached’ crap is just his cheap excuse to dodge commitment!”

Maxine forced a wobbly little smile, but the grief in her eyes gave her away. “Why are you this happy about it?”

“I’m happy for you! You’re finally getting out of that toxic mess!”

Maxine pulled off another weak smile, but the sorrow lingering in her gaze couldn’t be hidden.

“Max, you good?” Sam asked, worry creeping into her voice—she’d always seen how deep Maxine’s feelings for Braxton ran.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Maxine answered, forcing a small smile and staring down at her shoes to hide the ache of loneliness gnawing at her. “I’m just gonna run to the bathroom.”

When she stood, a wave of dizziness crashed over her. Everything went black, and the last thing she registered was Sam’s panicked voice calling her name.

...

When Maxine woke up the next morning, Sam’s voice wrapped around the quiet hospital room. “Thank God you’re awake! You scared the hell out of me!”

“I’m okay. I’ve just been overworking lately, haven’t been sleeping right. I’m sorry I worried you.”

She tried to swing her legs over the edge of the bed, but Sam gently pushed her back against the pillows. “Don’t you dare move! The doctor said there’s a miscarriage risk—you have to stay off your feet.”

“Miscarriage?” Maxine blinked, confusion clouding her face. “What… what are you talking about?”

“The doctor said you’re pregnant—about six weeks along,” Sam explained, her face soft with concern.

Maxine’s heart stopped cold. It took her several seconds to remember how to speak. “I’m… pregnant?”

Braxton had always been so careful. He’d never skipped protection, specifically to avoid exactly this. The only time it’d slipped up was that one night he’d gotten way too drunk and things had gotten out of hand. He’d even brought her emergency contraception the next morning, stood there and watched her take it.

She still ended up pregnant anyway. How was that even possible?

Noticing her silence, Sam pressed gently, “What are you gonna do? Are you gonna tell Braxton? It’s his kid, after all.”

“I can’t let Braxton find out about this.”

She knew his dismissive, cynical nature. He’d just assume she was trying to trap him with the baby, that she was using the pregnancy to claw her way up his social ladder. There was no point in giving him that excuse.

“So what are you gonna do about the baby? Keep it, or…?”

“I’m gonna quit Payne Corp first. After that, I’ll go to the clinic with you to take care of it.”

Maxine pressed a light, trembling hand to her abdomen, her heart heavy as lead. She knew Braxton would never let her keep this baby. She couldn’t keep it anyway—if she did, she’d never be able to cut him loose and move on.

“Okay. I’ll be right there with you, whatever you need,” Sam said, squeezing Maxine’s hand and letting out a quiet, sad sigh.

Maxine turned her face away, biting down hard on her lower lip to hold it together as tears burned the backs of her eyes.

Just then, her phone rang. She answered it, and her colleague Lee’s urgent voice came through the line: “Max, where are you? Your dad’s at the office cornering Mr. Payne, screaming that you’re his girl.”

Maxine’s mind went completely blank. “Lee, stall him! I’ll be there as fast as I can!”

She hung up, ripped the IV out of her arm, and bolted out of the hospital. A dull ache throbbed in her lower abdomen, turning her face paper-white, but she didn’t slow down—she headed straight for Braxton’s office.

Braxton sat behind his desk, calm as you please, a filled-out check already sitting right beside his hand.

Maxine wouldn’t meet his eye, yanking her father David out of the office as fast as she could. “What are you doing here? Let’s go outside to talk.”

Once they were on the rooftop, David wrenched his arm out of her grip. “Why’d you drag me out here? I came to talk to Mr. Payne.”

“What do you want from him?” Maxine asked, forcing her rage to stay locked down.

“Money, obviously. If you won’t give me money, I’ll get it from my future son-in-law!”

Her dad was a lifelong gambler. Every time he lost and dug himself into debt, he showed up at Payne Corp shaking Braxton down for cash. She’d warned him a hundred times to stop.

“What the hell are you talking about? Braxton and I are just coworkers! And I don’t have any money to give you!” Maxine fought to keep her voice from shaking.

David scoffed. “Bullshit! You’re his mistress, you must be rolling in it. Starting now, you’re gonna give me a hundred grand a month, or I’ll keep showing up here and embarrassing you.”

The word “mistress” hit Maxine like a slap to the face. She froze solid.

“I told you I don’t have any money! Even if I did, I wouldn’t give you a single cent!”

David jabbed a greasy finger right in her face, yelling loud enough for the whole building to hear. “How dare you talk back to me? You think you’re all grown up now, you can disobey me?”

“For years you gambled nonstop, and every time you lost you’d beat Mom and me. Mom’s covered in scars from you. You even tried to sell your own daughter to pay off your gambling debts. How dare you stand here and ask me for money!”

If Braxton hadn’t stepped in all those years ago, she’d have been sold to a brothel before she even turned eighteen.

David’s face turned red with rage, his voice booming. “Are you gonna give me the money or not?”

Maxine stared him down, jaw set. “I said no.”

David’s eyes burned with fury, then suddenly a nasty smirk spread across his face like he’d just come up with the perfect plan. He grabbed her arm hard enough to bruise. “If you don’t have the money, I’ll just sell you to the casino owners. As Braxton Payne’s girl, you’d pull in thousands a night!”

Maxine shoved him away as hard as she could. “David, have you no shame at all?”

She stumbled back a step, the cramping pain in her abdomen spiking sharp enough to make her gasp, her face draining of all color.

“You little brat! You dare lay a hand on me? I will sell you to a brothel myself!” David snarled, lunging forward to drag her away by the wrist.

Suddenly, a big, strong hand clamped down hard on David’s wrist. He spun around, and came face to face with Braxton’s ice-cold glare.

David flinched back, his whole demeanor melting into groveling subservience. “M-Mr. Payne…”

Braxton’s eyes were colder than winter, and his whole body radiated a deadly, chilling aura as he spoke low and dangerous: “Who gave you the balls to threaten someone on my turf?”