Snatched a Billionaire to Be My Husband – Episode 6

📖 The Story Continues

Snatched a Billionaire to Be My Husband — Episode 6

“Fuck my life.” Cora’s whisper carried more exhaustion than shock. She had come to the Hansen residence expecting resistance, but finding another woman already installed beside Easton made the cruelty feel almost theatrical. He had not merely abandoned Cora during the worst crisis of her life; he had moved on before the mark of his ring had faded from her finger.

Easton glanced toward the hallway, his confidence giving way to nerves. “My uncle is here. Let’s talk later.” The mention of Byron sent a jolt through Cora, but Easton hurried away before he could notice. She had spent the morning promising herself she would never see Byron again. Now he was somewhere in the same house.

“Cora!” A sharp female voice stopped her from following. Easton’s mother entered with the authority of someone defending her property from an unwanted visitor. The warmth she had once lavished on her son’s fiancée was gone, replaced by open contempt.

“You and Easton are through,” she declared. “You can stop begging to get him back.” Cora stared at the woman who had once called her family. Apparently, affection in the Hansen household lasted only as long as the gifts and prestige attached to the Lane name.

“What are you even doing here?” Easton’s mother demanded. Other members of the household had begun to gather, drawn by the confrontation. Cora felt their eyes cataloging her simpler clothes and lack of an engagement ring, searching for evidence of how far she had fallen.

“I just want the fifty thousand dollars Easton owes me,” Cora said. She refused to explain herself as though she were asking for charity. “After everything I’ve given all of you, I think that’s only fair.”

She looked from Easton to his mother. “You can pay me in cash or give me back the things I bought. Your choice.” The offer was more generous than they deserved. The gifts were worth many times what her mother’s immediate treatment required.

Easton’s face hardened now that he had an audience. “I don’t owe you shit.” His blunt refusal revealed the man beneath the polished manners Cora had once defended. He had no concern for fairness, only for keeping whatever her former wealth had placed in his hands.

His mother pressed a hand to her chest with dramatic offense. “You know, I used to think of you as the daughter I never had.” Cora almost laughed. A mother would not have watched her daughter drown and then complained when she reached for something that belonged to her.

“But now?” The older woman’s eyes swept over Cora with disgust. “So shameful. Coming here to beg us for money? You aren’t getting a dime.” The contempt in her voice drew approving looks from those around her.

“Wow.” Cora let the word cut through the room. “Things really change when you’re broke.” None of them denied it. The Hansens had toasted her generosity, praised her elegance, and welcomed her into photographs when the Lane fortune was intact. Without it, she had become an embarrassment they wanted erased.

Pride had already failed to move them, so Cora allowed the painful truth to surface. “I need the money for my mother’s medical bills. After everything happened, she couldn’t handle the pressure, and she fell ill.” Her voice tightened despite her effort to remain calm.

Easton’s mother did not soften. “Not one dime.” The answer came with chilling ease. She had visited Cora’s mother, accepted her hospitality, and claimed to love the Lane family. Now a watch on her son’s wrist mattered more than that woman’s life.

“I just want what’s mine.” Cora looked directly at Easton. “You asked for my engagement ring back. I think I can ask for my gifts back too.” The logic was undeniable, which only made his expression darker.

“Look,” she said, beginning the inventory she had compiled on the drive over. “In 2019, I gave you that Montblanc pen. Fifteen thousand dollars.” Easton’s gaze flicked toward the study, where he kept it displayed like a trophy.

“In 2020, the Rolex on your wrist—forty thousand.” Easton’s hand shifted instinctively, trying to hide the watch beneath his cuff. “Then the Georgia O’Keeffe painting in 2021.” Each gift marked a year of devotion that now embarrassed Cora more than the money itself.

She pointed toward the drive beyond the windows. “And in 2022, the Land Rover sitting right outside.” Easton finally reacted. “You gave that to me for my birthday. You can’t ask for it back.” His outrage might have been amusing if her mother’s future were not at stake.

“You proposed and gave me that engagement ring,” Cora shot back. “You couldn’t ask for that back either, but you did.” Silence rippled through the room. Easton could not defend the hypocrisy without admitting that his rules only applied when they benefited him.

Cora drew a controlled breath. “Just give me the fifty thousand, and we never have to see each other again.” It was the cleanest exit she could offer them. For one fleeting moment, Easton seemed to consider it.

Then a smile spread across his face, slow and vindictive. He finally possessed the power he had once resented Cora for holding without effort. “I’ll give you the money,” he said, savoring the hope he had created, “if you beg me for it.”