Divorce my prentened poor Billionaire husband

For three years, Annika Price had been Everest Kennedy’s secret wife. Now, she wanted a divorce.

"Everest, let's get a divorce," she said.

The man towering over her went still, his breath coming heavy and strained. His grip tightened, long fingers holding her face firm as he pinned her with his intense, dark gaze.

"You're running out on me after all this time? We've been married three years—why now? You think I'm still broke, is that it?"

Annika's long lashes fluttered. That wasn't the reason. Just two months after they'd wed, Everest had crashed into crippling debt, and she'd never left. She'd stayed, lived with him in a tiny rented apartment, juggled three jobs just to lighten the weight on his shoulders.

Her soft hand trembled over the hard edge of his chiseled abs before she pulled it back to rest over her own stomach. She'd just found out she was carrying his child.

Their marriage had always been one of convenience. Back when they said their vows, Everest was a billionaire heir. He'd bailed her father out of a seven hundred thousand dollar hole, but the catch was simple: she'd be his quiet, secret wife for four years, no pregnancies, no telling anyone they were even married.

She'd loved him in secret for years, willing to grind through every hardship just to earn a place in his heart...

"Everest... I found out I'm pregnant," Annika whispered, bracing herself for his reaction.

"No," he snapped, short and final.

A bitter smile tugged at the corner of Annika's mouth. He never loved her, not even a little. She'd just been too stupid to see it until recently—his heart had belonged to his adoptive sister this whole time.

He'd probably married her out of boredom, a quick fix to whatever problem he'd had back then. A secret marriage was just that: temporary convenience.

Annika drank in the sharp, handsome lines of his face, and a sharp ache split her chest open. Everyone had always said she'd never get pregnant. Here she was, finally carrying a baby, and she couldn't even tell him the good news without him shutting her down.

If that's how things were, she'd raise this baby on her own.

Faking a light, careless tone, she said, "Everest, since you don't actually want this, why not just split? You can go chase whatever you want, no strings attached."

Everest's jaw clenched so hard it looked like it might crack. "This is how you repay me for every single thing I've done for you?"

With that, he pulled away, leaving her alone in the warm sheets. Moments later, the sound of running water filled the bedroom as he stepped into the shower.

Annika's heart skipped a beat when she remembered the positive pregnancy test she'd left sitting on the bathroom vanity. She dashed in barefoot, panic coiling tight in her gut.

Thank God, it was still there, tucked out of sight behind her skincare bottle.

She breathed a sigh of relief and reached for it—only to be wrapped in a cloud of hot steam and his sharp, masculine scent.

Everest had stepped out of the shower. His toned muscles still glistened with leftover soapsuds, his broad shoulders cutting down to a narrow waist and long, thick legs.

"Not satisfied from earlier, huh?" he teased, his features softening in the warm bathroom light. His lips curved into that infuriating, addictive smirk. "Bursting in on me mid-shower—someone's eager, aren't they?"

"No, I just... left something in here," Annika blurted, spinning her back to him to clamp the test tight in her palm.

Before she could move, he hooked his hands under her thighs and lifted her, setting her down hard on the cool marble counter. He stepped between her spread legs, and that familiar soft, firm mouth crashed into hers.

"Mmm!" Annika's protests got swallowed whole by his hungry kiss. Her body betrayed her, melting into him even as she kept the pregnancy test tucked tight against her side.

The next morning, Annika went to the hospital for a check-up, and got the confirmation she'd already known: she was definitely pregnant.

Clutching the lab results, she sat down across from the women's health specialist.

"Doctor, I wasn't planning for this. I haven't even been taking folic acid. If I decide to terminate, how bad are the risks?"

"Your uterine lining is already thin—implantation is rare for you. If you end this pregnancy, there's a very good chance you'll never be able to carry a child at all. If you do choose to keep it, we just need your husband's signature on the consent forms. I'd suggest you talk this over with him first, personally. I really hope you don't take this risk."

Annika's fingers tightened around the lab slip until her knuckles went white, her whole hand trembling. "I don't have a husband."

That same morning, she'd gone to the registry office, only to find out the marriage certificate Everest had given her was fake.

At first she'd thought it was just a clerical error, so she asked, "What about my husband, Everest Kennedy? Is he still listed as single too?"

"Everest Kennedy? There's no record of anyone by that name registered here."

"Lies!" Annika collapsed into a chair, her hands turning ice-cold as she pressed them to her stomach.

From the very start, Everest had never been married to her. Even his name was a lie. What she'd thought was a marriage was just an illusion—nothing more than the price she'd paid for that seven hundred thousand dollars he'd handed her to save her father.

"Miss Price, if you really don't have a husband, we need you to decide soon. Termination gets a lot more complicated the further along you go."

The doctor's words cut through her spinning thoughts just as the office door slammed open hard enough to rattle the frame.

Everest stormed in, a pale, fragile figure crumpled in his arms.

"Emergency care, now," he barked, voice sharp and authoritative, no room for argument. "Abdominal pain, bleeding, dizziness."

The doctor rushed the woman to an exam bed, and a sharp scolding voice filtered through the privacy curtain a minute later.

"You've ruptured a corpus luteum. How reckless can you be? This internal bleeding is severe—it could have killed her."

Everest stood just outside the curtain, getting chewed out by the doctor. He looked irritated, but didn't talk back.

"Whatever meds or equipment you need, don't worry about the bill."

"This isn't about money. You need to exercise more restraint, do you understand me? Next time it could be fatal."

Annika sat frozen on the consultation chair, her whole body turning to ice as she stared at Everest's broad, straight silhouette through the fabric.

The man who'd held her all night, tangled her up in his sheets, was here for another woman. And he'd hurt her bad enough to land her in the emergency room.

Whether it was early pregnancy nausea or just the sight of what was unfolding in front of her, Annika's stomach rolled. She doubled over, retching into the waste bin by her chair.

Everest spun around at the sound, his face unreadable. "Annika. What are you doing here?"