The Double Life of My Billionaire Husband Episode 1

📖 The Story Continues

The Double Life of My Billionaire Husband – Episode 01

Natalie Quinn had never imagined that saving her mother would require her to kneel before the man who had abandoned them both. Yet there she was in the polished living room of her father’s mansion, her knees pressed into a carpet soft enough to cost more than a month of dialysis. The hospital’s final warning echoed in her head: without payment, her mother’s treatment could not continue. Pride had become a luxury she could no longer afford.

George Quinn sat rigidly on the sofa, avoiding her eyes as if the sight of his eldest daughter might force him to remember the family he had discarded. Beside him, Lauren wore silk and diamonds with the effortless confidence of a woman who believed every possession in the room—including George—belonged to her. Natalie tightened her hands in her lap. “Dad, can I borrow fifty thousand dollars? Mom needs kidney dialysis, and we really don’t have any money.”

For one fragile second, George looked stricken. His mouth opened, and Natalie saw the father she dimly remembered from childhood, the man who had once carried her on his shoulders and promised she would never have to face the world alone. “Natalie, the thing is—” he began, but Lauren’s sharp laugh sliced through his hesitation before it could become compassion.

“How shameless of you to come here and beg us for money.” Lauren regarded Natalie as though she had tracked mud across the marble floor. There was no concern in her face for the sick woman at the center of this humiliation, only irritation that the past had appeared at her door. “You disappear until you need something, then expect this family to rescue you.”

Natalie swallowed the answer burning her throat. She had not disappeared; she had been pushed out with her mother when George chose his new wife and easier life. Correcting Lauren would not keep the dialysis machine running. “I’ll pay you back,” she said, forcing steadiness into her voice. “Every cent. I promise. I just need time.”

George shifted forward, guilt softening his expression. “Lauren, maybe we can let her borrow the money. I mean, it’s her mother who’s sick.” His words were timid, offered less like a decision than a request for permission. That weakness hurt Natalie more than a refusal would have. He had the money, but apparently not the courage to decide how to use it.

Lauren turned on him with chilling speed. “You’re still thinking about your ex-wife?” The question carried a threat sharpened by years of practice. George immediately recoiled. “No, no,” he said, and the last trace of hope in Natalie’s chest dimmed. Lauren leaned closer to him. “Do I need to remind you that this is your family now?”

Her jeweled hand swept across the luxurious room, claiming the house, the fortune, and the obedient husband beside her. “George, without me, you’d have nothing.” He lowered his gaze, offering no protest. Natalie finally understood that her father would not risk his comfortable present to help the woman he had left behind—not even when that woman’s life was measured in hospital invoices.

The click of heels sounded from the hall. Cassie Quinn entered with a bright smile that held no warmth, pausing long enough to enjoy the scene at her feet. Perfectly dressed and utterly untroubled, she looked like a daughter who had never been told there was not enough money for her needs. “Aw. If it isn’t my loser sister asking for money like a beggar. How pathetic.”

Natalie’s shame hardened into anger. She rose, refusing to give Cassie the satisfaction of looking down on her any longer. “This was a mistake.” If she had to plead with the hospital, sell everything she owned, or work until her body gave out, it would be better than allowing these people to strip away what remained of her dignity.

She had taken only one step when Cassie called after her. “Wait. We’ll give you the money.” The abrupt offer stopped Natalie near the doorway. Behind her, Lauren asked, “What?” but Cassie’s pleased little laugh made it clear that generosity had nothing to do with the sudden change.

Natalie turned slowly. Cassie folded her arms and studied her with the calculating interest of someone who had just discovered a convenient substitute. “We’ll pay the medical bills if you marry Sebastian Klein in my place.” The room went silent, and even George looked startled. Lauren’s surprise lasted only a moment before delight spread across her face.

“My daughter is so smart,” Lauren said. “That’s a good idea.” Their approval passed between them as if Natalie were not a person but a piece on a board they could move wherever they pleased. George did not object. His silence completed the bargain before Natalie had even answered.

“Sebastian Klein?” Natalie repeated. She knew the name despite having never met him. Everyone in their social circle knew it. He was the illegitimate son of the powerful Klein family, an outcast whose scandals seemed to multiply whenever his relatives tried to bury them. “You mean the Klein son you’re supposed to marry?”

“Yes, that Sebastian,” Cassie said with open disgust. “He’s a dirtbag and a good-for-nothing loser. That’s why I can’t marry him.” She spoke as though the arrangement were an insult too degrading for her but perfectly suitable for Natalie. Rumors painted Sebastian as reckless, unemployed, and constantly surrounded by thugs; some even said prison doors knew him better than his own family did.

Lauren nodded, warming to the cruelty of the solution. “Natalie is also your daughter,” she reminded George. “She can be the one who marries Sebastian Klein.” The contemptuous twist she gave his name reduced a human being to a family embarrassment. More importantly, it freed Cassie from a match the Quinns apparently could not reject without consequence.

“No. I’m not going to.” Natalie’s refusal came at once, driven by instinct. She would not bind her entire life to a dangerous stranger so Cassie could remain untouched. She looked at her father, silently asking him to recognize how monstrous the demand was, but George stared at the floor.

Lauren’s expression became cold again. “Do you want us to pay your mother’s medical bills or not?” There it was—the blade hidden inside the offer. Natalie could walk away with her freedom, but the cost might be her mother’s life. The hospital’s fluorescent corridors rose in her memory, along with her mother’s exhausted smile and repeated apologies for being a burden.

Natalie’s resistance crumbled beneath a choice that was no choice at all. Marriage to Sebastian might ruin her future; refusing could erase the person for whom that future mattered. She drew a shaky breath and forced herself to meet Cassie’s triumphant gaze. “You’ll pay the full amount,” she said. “No excuses, and no delays.” Lauren gave a satisfied nod.

“Fine,” Natalie whispered, though the word seemed to come from somewhere outside her body. Then she made herself say it clearly enough that no one could pretend to misunderstand. “I’ll marry Sebastian Klein.” As Cassie smiled in victory, Natalie wondered what kind of man inspired a wealthy family to sacrifice one daughter just to keep him away from the other—and whether she had agreed to save one life by surrendering her own.