Part 3The Gold Digger's Revenge: A Billionaire's Regret

I began to seriously consider ending things with Chris. But I couldn’t let myself think about it for too long. The second I did, my heart would clench with a pain so sharp it took my breath away.

So, I shamefully played the coward.

Until the night of our graduation gala. I was in a storage room, grabbing more chairs, when I saw Chris stumbling down the hotel corridor. His body suddenly went slack, and he was about to collapse.

My heart lurched. Without a second thought, I rushed forward and caught him.

His shirt was unbuttoned, and he was muttering, “So hot, so hot…” He looked flushed and dazed, and I just assumed he was drunk. I struggled to support his dead weight, managing to get him into a nearby lounge to rest.

It wasn't until he pushed me down onto the bed, his weight pinning me, that I realized something was terribly wrong.

I tried to fight him off, to wriggle free. But a part of me, a weak and desperate part, wondered if this was fate, making the choice for me.

Then Chris made his own choice.

He lifted his head, his eyes narrowing as he stared down at me.

“Thea…?”

My hand trembled as I reached up to wrap my arms around his neck.

But in the next second, he grabbed my wrist and dragged me onto the floor.

He clutched his head, his eyes clearing as he looked at me, crumpled on the carpet. “Are you crazy? Do you have any idea what you’re doing? You drugged me!”

I stared up at him, my hand instinctively flying to my chest. “Drugged you?” I whispered in disbelief. “No, I just saw you… you looked like you were about to pass out, so I…”

My words died in my throat. The look on his face—pure, unadulterated scorn—silenced me.

“Right,” he sneered. “Keep spinning your little stories, Thea. When did you become like this?”

Tears welled in my eyes, but I held them back, making one last, desperate attempt to defend myself. “It wasn’t me. I didn’t do it. You can check the security cameras.”

His only response was silence and that cold, mocking expression.

The silence froze my heart solid. I wiped my eyes and, with a trembling voice, finally said the words that had been haunting me for weeks.

“Chris, let’s break up.”

The silent, brooding Chris suddenly let out a cold laugh. He hauled me to my feet.

“Wow, Thea. You’re good. Playing hard to get now, are we?” His voice was laced with venom. “Is money really that important to you?”

“Fine!”

Before I could react, he was dragging me toward the door. He yanked it open and shoved me, hard, into the hallway.

I stumbled and fell. The students milling about in the corridor froze, staring. A second later, the silence was broken by a chorus of wolf-whistles.

Shaking with humiliation, I curled into a ball on the floor, desperately trying to pull the remnants of my dress over my chest. Someone in the crowd even took out their phone and started recording.

My teeth chattered as I pleaded with the man standing over me.

“Chris, please, don’t do this. Please, just give me a jacket. Anything.”

He scoffed, his voice like ice. “Give you a jacket? Thea, did you think about covering up when you were plotting to drug me and climb into my bed?”

His voice rose, echoing down the hall. “Isn’t this just the price people like you have to pay to get ahead?”

A wave of shocked murmurs rippled through the crowd. Someone called me a gold-digging whore. Someone else said I got what I deserved.

In that moment, I was nailed to a cross of public shame.

After that night, I became infamous in our small circle in Northwood. My reputation as a gold digger was sealed. Anyone and everyone felt they had the right to look at me with disgust, their eyes lingering on my body with predatory intent.

I was on the verge of a breakdown. I cut off all contact with everyone I had ever known, and one night, under the cover of darkness, I moved my mother out of the city.

Seven years ago, when I fled Northwood in disgrace, I never thought I would return. For a long time, just the thought of the city was enough to make me curl up in a ball and tremble through the night.

But now, seeing an old face, remembering those events that felt like they happened in another lifetime… the calm in my heart told me that time really is the best healer.

And the Thea I am today is not the girl I was back then.

So I spun around, walked right back to Carter, and slapped him across the face. Hard.

“Go to hell.”

His eyes bugged out. “Thea, you’ve grown some balls, haven’t you?” he snarled. “You want me to call Chris over here to deal with you?”

I laughed. “It’s been years, and you people are still exactly the same.” Still so arrogant.

He must have mistaken my laugh for fear. He pointed a finger at my stomach. “Good, you know you should be sorry. Now hurry up and take care of that… thing.”

“Chris has been hung up on you for years. You’re one step away from climbing the social ladder. Isn’t that the lifelong goal for people like you?”

Climbing the social ladder? The last time I tried that, Chris Johnston kicked me off, sending me from a "good girl" to a notorious tramp.

A bitter smile touched my lips. “And what makes you so sure my husband isn’t a better man than Chris?”

He looked at me, his expression shifting from anger to suspicion. He scanned me from head to toe. “Impossible. No respectable family would ever let the housekeeper’s daughter marry in.” He paused, then a look of dawning comprehension crossed his face. “Oh, I get it. You married some bastard, didn’t you? An illegitimate son?”

I just scoffed, too tired to argue.

As I walked away, he yelled after me, “Thea, don’t you dare regret this!”

I don’t know about me having regrets, but I was pretty sure he would. He told Chris I was back in Northwood.

I found out when I was in a baby boutique, happily browsing through rows of tiny clothes. The sales associate next to me tapped my shoulder. “Is that the baby’s father?” she whispered, nodding toward the entrance. “He’s been standing there watching you for a while.”

My heart skipped a beat. I turned, a smile already forming on my lips, but it froze solid on my face.