The billionaire regret;the heiress revenge

Chapter 2: The Final Blade

Sienna’s POV

The phone was still warm in my hand when the bathroom door opened. I didn't have time to put it back. I didn't have time to wipe the shock from my face.

Xavier stepped out, a towel slung low around his waist, but his relaxed posture vanished the second he saw me.

A dark look crossed his face, a mixture of violation and pure, unadulterated rage. He didn't just walk toward me; he stalked, his eyes fixed on the device as if I were holding a weapon.

Before I could breathe a word of explanation, he reached out and wrenched the phone from my grip. His fingers brushed mine, but there was no warmth, only the rough force of his anger. I could feel the way he held himself from hitting me, but even if he did it wouldn't be the first time.

"How dare you?" he hissed, his voice low and vibrating with a threat that made my skin crawl. "Who gave you the right to touch my things, Sienna? Do you have no concept of boundaries? No sense of what isn't yours? You fifthly little witch, so now you also have no manner? Is there anything you do right?"

I stood there, paralyzed. My hands were still shaped as if they were holding the phone. It was a jarring contrast. Just minutes ago, he had been a wall of silence, hiding behind a locked door to deny me even the smallest bit of conversation. He had treated me like a ghost for three years, and now, suddenly, I was a criminal.

In the three years we had been married—and the one year of friendship before that—he had only truly touched me once.

That was the night that had changed everything. The night that had left me pregnant and forced our families to drag us to the altar. Since that night, I had lived in a desert, starving for a look, a word, or a simple hand on my shoulder.

"Why is Vanessa Reed texting you, Xavier?"

I forced the words out. I tried to make them sound strong, like I was a woman demanding respect, but inside, I was a house of cards about to fall apart.

Vanessa Reed. His first love. The girl from the childhood photos he thought I hadn't seen. The woman who had been the shadow over our dinner table every single night for a thousand days.

I knew how much he had loved her. I knew that when she disappeared three years ago, she had taken the only soft part of him with her. Rumor had it his mother had paid her to vanish because she was a "distraction" from the merger our families wanted. I had always thought she was gone for good.

Finding out she was back—and that she was "checking out of a hotel"

"That is absolutely none of your business," Xavier answered. He didn't even look at me as he turned toward his dresser. He dismissed me with the same casual air someone might use to brush a stray hair off their sleeve.

"But I'm your wife," I whispered, the word feeling heavy and wrong in my mouth. "I'm just asking a question. I saw the message, Xavier. I saw what she called you."

He spun around, his eyes flashing like flint. "Are you actually challenging me right now, Sienna?"

I flinched. Xavier’s temper wasn't a secret, but I usually did everything in my power to avoid it. Tonight was supposed to be our anniversary. I had spent the whole day telling myself to ignore his coldness, to just endure it one more time, hoping that eventually, the sheer weight of my patience would win him over. I thought if I stayed quiet enough, I would finally be rewarded with his love.

"I have a right to know," I said, my voice shaking but persistent. "I've been here for three years. I've been loyal. I've protected your name. I'm not rebelling, Xavier, I’m just... I'm drowning."

Xavier let out a harsh, jagged laugh that sounded like glass breaking. "You have rights? You think you earned a seat at the table because I followed my mother’s orders to marry the girl who trapped me?"

The word *trapped* felt like a slap.

"Xavier..." I tried to speak, my voice small and broken.

"Don't," he thundered, stepping closer until he was towering over me. "Don't you dare act like the victim. If it wasn't for your manipulative little games, I would have been married to Vanessa years ago. This marriage? This house? This life? It was never what I wanted. If you hadn't lied about that pregnancy, I wouldn't be bound to a woman who only cares about the Laurent name and the money that comes with it!"

The world stopped.

I stood there, frozen, my lips parted but no sound coming out. A gold-digger? Manipulative?

The memory of our wedding night flashed through my mind. I remembered him looking at me with such pure vitriol and saying, *'I will never love you, Sienna. You’re a shameless woman for trapping me like this.'

At the time, I told myself he was just hurting. I told myself that once he saw how hard I worked to make him happy, he would realize I wasn't the enemy.

I remembered my twentieth birthday. I had finally gathered the courage to tell him I loved him, and he had laughed in my face. I had left the party in tears, and the next thing I knew, I woke up in a hotel bed next to him with no memory of how we got there. Then came the pregnancy.

A baby I had desperately wanted. A baby I had lost in a flurry of blood and grief two years ago while he was away on a business trip.

"You know I was pregnant, Xavier," I said, my voice barely a thread. "I didn't lie. I didn't trap you. I lost our child. How can you say those things to me?"

For three years, I had taken his scorn. I had taken his silence. I thought if I just kept absorbing the pain, he would eventually see the truth of me.

"Do you really think I don't know the truth?" he sneered. "I only married you because your grandmother threatened to pull every single Vale share out of Laurent Enterprises. She had me by the throat, Sienna."

I felt the blood drain from my face. "What? What are you talking about?"

"It means I married you for stability!" he shouted, his voice echoing off the walls of the room I had decorated so carefully. "I married you to save my company! And guess what? Laurent Enterprises is thriving.

We’re more powerful than the Vales now. I don’t need the shares, and I certainly don't need you."I had to reach out and grab the bedpost to keep from falling. "I don't understand."

He didn't bother to explain further. He reached into the suitcase he had thrown on the bed and pulled out a thick, white envelope. He didn't hand it to me; he practically threw it at my chest.

My fingers were numb as I caught it.

"Vanessa is back," Xavier said, his voice returning to that terrifying, flat chill. "And I'm going to be with her. I'm done with the obstacles. I’m done with you. The papers are inside. Sign them."

The room began to spin.

"Alimony, property, whatever you want," he added, already moving back toward his dresser to finish dressing. "Just agree to it. Make it easy for once in your life."

I couldn't breathe. I looked at the envelope in my hand.

Every sacrifice I had made,every dinner I ate alone, every night I cried myself to sleep, every time I defended him to his mother—it all meant nothing.

The second the woman he actually wanted whistled, he was ready to toss me into the trash like the lingerie I had just thrown away.

He hadn't even hesitated. There was no regret in his eyes. There was only a sense of relief, as if he were finally shedding a skin he hated wearing.

I looked at his back, the broad shoulders I had wanted to lean on, and I realized I had never been his wife. I had been a hostage, and he had been my jailer. And now, he was simply opening the door because he found a better place to go.

I didn't cry. Not yet. I just stood there, clutching the end of my marriage in a paper envelope, while the man I loved treated my entire life like a business deal he was finally ready to close.

"I'll give you whatever it takes to get you out of my sight," he muttered, not even glancing back.