The Double Life of My Billionaire Husband – Episode 15
Sarah followed Natalie’s gaze to the phone. “Do you have anything you can sell for fast cash?” she asked. The question felt brutal, but urgency left little space for delicacy. “I have a couple thousand saved. I can lend it to you until you get a job.” She was already reaching for her banking app, prepared to transfer the money before Natalie could argue.
Natalie refused before the offer was complete. “You’ve already helped with the wedding rentals and these interviews. I won’t empty your savings too.” Friendship was not another resource she intended to consume.
“Your mother’s health matters more than my savings account.” Sarah reached across the table, but Natalie gently pulled her hand away. Accepting would delay the problem, not solve it.
The image of the black pumps returned with uncomfortable clarity. They had never been worn outside the boutique, and their red soles remained flawless. Sebastian had chosen them after a stranger tried to shame her, turning an extravagant object into a declaration that she deserved respect. Seven thousand dollars was locked inside a box at home while the hospital waited. Sentiment could not be allowed to outweigh dialysis, no matter how precious the memory attached to it.
“Actually,” Natalie said slowly, “selling something might work.” Sarah recognized the shift in her expression and frowned. “What do you own that’s worth enough?”
Natalie avoided the question. Telling Sarah about Sebastian’s gift would invite exactly the concern she had no time to answer. “Nothing sentimental. Just something I don’t need.”
“That sounds suspiciously vague.” Sarah knew how quickly Natalie sacrificed her own comfort. In college, Natalie had skipped meals rather than admit she could not afford them and worked double shifts without telling anyone why. “Promise me you aren’t selling your wedding ring.” If Natalie removed that small band after defending her new husband so fiercely, Sarah feared the marriage might be more painful than she claimed.
Natalie looked at the simple band. Unlike the shoes, it represented a vow—even an arranged one—and she could not imagine removing it. “Not the ring.”
Sarah relaxed only slightly. “Then let me come with you.” “You have work,” Natalie reminded her. “And I can handle a pawnshop by myself.”
The word pawnshop made Sarah wince. “They’ll offer a fraction of what anything is worth. They’ll see that you’re desperate and build the entire deal around it.” Natalie already knew, but a fraction of seven thousand might buy enough time to secure employment. She could endure being underestimated by one more stranger if the result kept her mother safely connected to treatment.
“A loan against the item is enough,” she said. “I can reclaim it once I have a paycheck.” The plan sounded almost responsible when stated quickly.
“And if the job takes longer than expected?” Sarah asked. Natalie had no answer. Every path before her relied on money arriving before time ran out. She had already submitted applications across the city, including positions below her education and outside her interests, but employers moved according to calendars that had nothing to do with medical urgency. Even a successful interview could mean weeks before a first paycheck reached her account.
Another hospital message appeared, this one warning that treatment scheduling could be affected. Natalie read the clinical language twice, translating administrative caution into the reality it concealed: missed dialysis could cause rapid, dangerous complications. Her uncertainty vanished. A pair of shoes could be lost; her mother could not be replaced. She had already traded a marriage for that truth, and refusing to trade a luxury gift now would make the first sacrifice meaningless.
“I have to go.” She stood so quickly that her portfolio nearly slid to the floor. Sarah caught it and pressed it back into her hands. The folder felt heavier after Serena’s rejection, but Natalie refused to discard it; another interviewer might still look beyond names and appearances. She would carry both the résumé and the shoes toward whatever solution opened first.
“Natalie, wait. At least tell Sebastian what’s happening.” Sarah had never met him, yet even she understood that spouses were supposed to face emergencies together.
“He doesn’t have the money to fix this.” Natalie remembered the mysterious card and corrected herself. “And whatever money he has, I won’t take more after yesterday.”
“He bought you something expensive, didn’t he?” Sarah guessed. Natalie’s silence confirmed it. “Then selling it without telling him is going to hurt him.”
Guilt tightened Natalie’s chest. Sebastian had called the shoes a wedding gift, not an investment she could liquidate. He had known her size, insisted the clerk help her, and watched her try them on with a tenderness she had not expected from a contractual husband. Selling them felt like taking his kindness and converting it into cash behind his back. Still, gifts could not take priority over survival.
“I’ll explain after I get them back,” she said. That future explanation depended on a job she did not yet have, but hope was the only collateral available to her.
Natalie hurried toward the exit. Behind her, Sarah called her name once more, but the hospital deadline drove her forward. She had entered marriage to save her mother; if preserving that life required sacrificing the first gift her husband had given her, there was no choice left to make. She only hoped Sebastian would someday understand the difference between rejecting his gift and using it to protect the person she loved most.
