Chapter 10 - The Devastating Price
Marcus fought wildly against the iron grip of the security guards, his polished veneer completely eradicated. "Evelyn, please! Think about what we built! We were married! We can fix this! I love you! I was confused, I was pressured by my parents!"
"You didn't love me, Marcus," Evelyn said, stepping down from the podium toward the edge of the stage. "You loved having someone you thought you could control. Someone you could step on to make yourself feel tall."
Ashley Summers slowly tried to edge away from the table, attempting to slip toward the service exit, but Julian Vance stepped into her path, holding a manila folder.
"Leaving so soon, Miss Summers?" Julian inquired politely, his voice carrying clearly to the patrons nearby.
Ashley recoiled. "I have nothing to do with this! I’m pregnant with Marcus’s heir! The Harrison family owes me child support!"
Julian smiled thinly. "I’m afraid that won't be possible. First, because Marcus Harrison has a net worth of negative four hundred million dollars as of three minutes ago. His personal accounts have been seized, and his family estate is being locked by bailiffs tomorrow morning."
Ashley’s jaw dropped in absolute horror.
"And second," Julian added, pulling a laboratory document from the folder, "because according to the prenatal genetic analysis conducted by St. Jude’s Medical Center, Marcus Harrison is not the father of your child. Your former trainer, Mr. Tyler Brooks, has already signed an affidavit acknowledging paternity."
Marcus froze. He stopped struggling against the guards, his eyes widening in catastrophic disbelief. He turned his head toward Ashley, his voice a broken squeak. "What? What did he say?"
Ashley looked at Marcus, and the mask of high-society elegance shattered completely. "You fool," she snarled, her voice dripping with disgust. "Did you really think a man like you could keep a woman like me without money? You’re pathetic! You’ve always been pathetic!"
The room erupted into mutters of contempt. Marcus fell to his knees on the carpet—the exact position he had forced Evelyn into two nights prior.
"No... no, no..." Marcus wept openly, clawing at his hair. "I gave up everything. I gave up Evelyn... for you?"
Evelyn walked slowly to the edge of the low platform, looking down at the broken man kneeling before her. The symmetry was complete.
Marcus looked up through his tears, his voice cracking into a desperate, wretched plead. "Evelyn... forgive me. Please. I will do anything. I’ll scrub your floors. I’ll work in your mailroom. Don't destroy me like this. What about our future? We could have had a family!"
Evelyn gently placed one hand over her lower abdomen, leaning down just enough so only Marcus could hear her next words over the ambient hum of the room.
"We did have a family, Marcus," she whispered with deadly softness.
Marcus blinked, stunned. "What?"
"I was six weeks pregnant the night you threw me out," Evelyn whispered, her eyes burning like black ice. "I had bought yellow shoes. I was going to tell you over dinner. But you were too busy discussing how your prenup would leave me with nothing."
Marcus stared at her stomach, the realization hitting him with the force of an atomic blast. His breath left him in a ragged, agonizing gasp.
"You... you’re carrying my child?" he choked out, reaching toward her with trembling hands. "My baby?"
"Not your baby, Marcus," Evelyn replied, pulling her velvet coat closer around herself. "To the world, and to this child, their father does not exist. You will never see them. You will never hold them. You will never even know their name. When they ask about you, I will tell them their father was an arrogant ghost who destroyed himself because he couldn't recognize gold when it was in his hands."
"No! Evelyn! That's my child!" Marcus roared in agony, trying to surge forward. "You can't keep my child from me!"
"Remove him," Evelyn commanded the guards. "He is trespassing at a private Sovereign event."
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The security officers dragged Marcus Harrison backward through the grand doors of the ballroom, his fingernails tearing at the carpet, his screams of wretched despair echoing until the heavy oak doors slammed shut behind him.
***
