MY BILLIONAIRE HUSBAND WANTED AN HEIR, NOT ME.

Ivy’s POV

I had imagined freedom would feel lighter. Instead it felt unbearably lonely. The apartment was barely half the size of Raphael’s walk-in closet… one bedroom, one bathroom, a tiny kitchen, a worn-out sofa by the window. It was all I could afford after six months’ rent up front. The landlord had smiled kindly when I signed the lease.

“You’ll like it here, I assure you,” he’d said.

I’d smiled back, but the truth was nothing would ever feel like home again. Silence pressed in as I set my suitcase beside the couch… no servants, no laughter from Margaret, no Emily calling me down for breakfast, no small footsteps crawling across polished floors, no Raphael. Just silence.

The one thing that comforted me was this: my mother was alive, and my sister Lily was still at one of the best universities abroad, thanks to everything that came with being Mrs. Langford.

My phone buzzed as I switched it on for the first time since leaving the mansion. Over two hundred missed calls filled the screen… most from unknown numbers, several from Emily, Margaret, Daniel, my mother, Lily. One from Raphael.

My thumb hovered over his name until my chest tightened, and then I switched the phone off again. Some goodbyes hurt less when they stayed unfinished.

A soft knock sounded at the door.

Maybe it’s the landlord, I thought… he’d mentioned bringing an extra key. I wiped my face before opening it.

A woman stood there in an elegant cream dress, diamond earrings, flawless makeup, smiling with a confidence that made my stomach drop before I even placed her face.

Sophia. How had she found me this fast?

“So this is where you’ve decided to start over?” She looked me up and down, her smile widening.

“What do you want?” I asked, sharper than I meant to.

She stepped inside without waiting to be asked, heels clicking softly against the tile as she took in the apartment. She stopped at the window.

“I expected somewhere nicer.”

I didn’t answer. She turned toward me, her expression softening into something almost sympathetic.

“You’ve done the right thing, Ivy.”

“What do you mean?”

She tilted her head. “Don’t worry… Richard told me everything.” My blood went cold. “About your marriage. The contract. The baby.”

Every word landed harder than the last.

“I know this can’t have been easy,” Sophia said gently, “but it was always going to end this way. Raphael doesn’t even like you.” She studied my face for a moment. “What man signs a contract with a woman he actually likes?”

The question hit like a slap… and worse, it felt true. No man treats a woman he loves the way Raphael had treated me from the very first day, back when Grandma first asked him to marry me: the silence, the barely concealed irritation.

My nails dug into my palms. I couldn’t find a single argument against her. He’d been good to me while I was pregnant… the last six months at the mansion had been the best of my life, the first time I’d ever felt truly seen. But maybe that had only ever been for the baby’s sake. Maybe it had always been going to end.

“How did you even find me?”

“I saw you leaving the mansion with your things. I followed.”

“Why are you here?”

“To thank you.” My head snapped up.

She pulled a small velvet box from her handbag and opened it… a diamond engagement ring caught the light.

“I wanted you to hear it from me before the papers announce it.” My heart stopped. “Raphael is finally free.” She snapped the box shut. “Our engagement will be announced soon.”

She looked straight at me. “When it happens, I hope you won’t make things difficult.”

The room went silent. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. She stepped closer, until only inches separated us, and dropped her voice to a whisper.

“You were never meant to stay. You were only ever meant to give the Langfords an heir. I’ll take it from here.” She smiled once more and turned for the door… then paused.

“Oh, before I forget.” She pulled a signed check from her bag and tossed it toward me. “You should move somewhere farther than this. If I found you this easily, anyone can. And I’d hate for you to show up someday causing trouble for my son.”

She smiled and let the door click shut behind her.

I stood frozen. The apartment suddenly felt too small, too quiet, too empty.

Her son? Had she really just called my son hers?

A tear slid down my cheek, then another, until I was sobbing hard enough to sink to the floor. My wedding ring had left a pale mark on my finger. I rubbed at it absently, as if the skin still remembered the weight of it.

Maybe Richard was right. Maybe Sophia was right.

Maybe I had simply mistaken Raphael’s kindness for love.

I closed my eyes, hoping that when I opened them, some of this would hurt less.

Two years earlier, I had been nothing more than an ordinary office assistant at Langford Group. I never imagined that helping one elderly woman would change my life forever… that I’d end up living with the consequences of a choice I’d made to lift my family out of poverty, and that it would cost me this much.