Mafia Billionaire’s Forlorn Wife
Chapter 49

Arabella

“Why did you lie?” Leo shrieks, staring at me with an unbelievable expression on his face the moment Rhys leaves the house after slamming the door on his way out.

I suck in a deep breath, shaking my head slightly, I say, “I have no desire to prove anything to him now, Leo. He has decided that he wishes to continue believing the worse in me, then that is what he shall.”

Leo shakes his head, “but do you realise that you’ve not even done anything. You’ve been loyal to a fault, and he hasn’t —”

“He hasn’t cheated on me, Lee.” I say abruptly, too quickly before realising that I am defending him.

Leo looks at me in utter disbelief, “what are you made of, Bella?” He gasps out, staring at me like I have grown two heads, “how can you still have something positive to say about that man?”

I look away from him, unable to meet his gaze as I mutter, “I don’t have anything good to say about him, but I will not endorse lies or play the victim here. He hasn’t cheated on me.”

I know that he’s paid more attention to other women, he’s always listened to Amelia when it comes to quite literally anything, and he has never really given me the time of the day except for some mind blowing s*x…but I know he hasn’t been disloyal. I can not claim suffering over things that I haven’t suffered yet.

Leo runs his hand through his hair, cursing under his breath, “Bella, he might not have been unfaithful but he is most certainly disloyal when it comes to keeping his priorities straight. And I don’t know what Stepford wife thing this is that you’re following, but I am so done with you throwing sand over every wrong thing that he has done.”

I feel my throat clog up at those words as I feel my entire strength leaving my body to a point where I just walk over to the sofa and sit down with my face completely void of emotions.

“It’s not a Stepford wife thing.” I whisper, feeling my voice c***k as moisture gathers in my eyes but I find it difficult to look up and meet his gaze, “I’m just really exhausted and heartbroken over the fact that I have loved this man so much, and with my entire heart, that even after everything that I have left behind in order to become his wife, he does not respect me even a bit.” More tears fall from my eyes and it’s as if my heart has been opened up for the world to see all the scars. Even if I try, I can’t stop crying, “I wanted to give him my all…I wanted…I wanted to show him that he was my world, Lee…and he broke all that. He broke me.” My voice cracks as I finally look up at him with bloodshot eyes and Leo instantly kneels between my knees and wraps me in his embrace, burying my face in his neck as I sob uncontrollably.

“I loved him…Lee…he’s the only man I’ve ever loved…” I scream out and feel my heart bleeding through my insides as I scrunch my entire face like it would somehow stop the pain from piercing through my chest, “why couldn’t he love me, Lee? Was I so bad?”

Leo immediately shakes his head as he strokes the length of my hair, “no, sweetheart, you weren’t bad at all, you could never be anything but utterly beautiful and miraculous, Bella. You’re the best friend that I could have asked for. You’re the best sister your brother could have asked for. Rhys doesn’t know what he’s missing out on. He doesn’t know how royally he has f****d up.”

I cry furthermore, just feeling all my pain leaving my body but still leaving so much of it behind, “he was my everything…”

At one point, the pain in my chest becomes so unbearable that I forget how to breathe and feel my entire body set into panic as I realise the first signs of an anxiety attack.

“f**k!” Leo shrieks as he pulls back and looks at me, “baby, Bella, listen to me…please don’t do this to yourself. Please don’t let him affect you this much. Bella please!” He says patting my cheeks and massaging the points in my forehead and neck that usually help to calm my anxiety down.

“Lee…I can’t…breathe…” I croak out, trying to pull in oxygen but I find my nose all clogged up with emotion and even my throat is choking on the weight of my tears.

“Bella, this isn’t good for the baby…” he says urgently as he cups my cheeks, “please, think about it…breathe with me, come on.” He whispers as he starts tapping his fingertips against my forehead and cheeks and jaw— softly and gently, as per the technique we learned about when we were kids and have been using since then to calm each other down.

My thoughts are all muddled up but somehow the moment my palm connects with my lower abdomen, I feel a surge of protectiveness and love in my heart as I realise that even though I have only known about my unborn child for a few hours, I am already in love with them and I will do everything to make sure that they come in this world.

That is when I force my body to relax while I breathe along with Leo, using him as my anchor to get through this anxiety that I am feeling before I finally am able to get some air into my lungs.

Leo’s shoulders relax the moment he sees that I am able to breath again as he stops the tapping and starts rubbing my hands gently, kissing them to make my mind register all these different sensations so I can further take my thoughts away from the anxiety that I was feeling just now.

“How do you feel now?” Leo asks breathlessly by the time I am completely calmed down and I look at him with a slightly uncertain expression.

“I don’t know…” I whisper softly.

“Do you want to go see a doctor?”

I shake my head, “I just want to sleep.” I whisper, feeling my body get heavier as I practically flop sideways onto the sofa and my eyelids start to droop.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” He asks softly, “do you want some medicine?”

I shake my head, “I don’t know if it’ll be okay for me to have it.”

He shakes his head, “don’t worry, I’ll talk to your doctor and get you something to help you. You think you’ll be okay here for a few minutes? I’ll just run down quickly.”

I nod sleepily, realising how heavy my entire body feels as I feel exhaustion from everything currently going wrong in my life and just allow it to overpower me.

“Alright, call me if you need something. I’ll only be a few minutes away.”

I nod and then he presses his lips against mine and walks out of his apartment, locking the door from outside.

I lay there on the sofa, blinking my eyes slowly as my thoughts still rage with Rhys’ words, his face, his expression, and even the time when he showed me love.

A small smile takes over my lips as I think about the way he would always shower me with flowers, and presents, and devotion and even endless acts of service to show his love for me.

Bitterness takes root in my heart as I am once again reminded of the fact that he did all of that just to make me marry him before revealing his true colours to me.

He was only lying.

Never telling me the truth.

Never telling me what his real intentions were.

I am still deep in my thoughts when I hear the door slamming open and I lazily smile and open my eyes, “back already, Grinch, relax, I’m not going to die just yet.”

And that is when I see the faces of four unknown and uniformed men— all armed — entering the apartment and my eyes widen as I muster up the strength and sit up, groaning as my head still spins a little.

“Who are you all and how did you get in here?” I whisper, realising that even my voice feels tired and right now, I really need sleep.

“That’s not an important question, darling,” Amelia’s voice makes my eyes widen as I realise that she’s here and I am all alone— pregnant and unable to defend myself.

I immediately launch to my feet just at the same moment that she appears standing in the doorway of Leo’s apartment and my heart starts to race wildly.

I am extremely scared of this woman and I know that I am going to get in a lot of danger if Leo doesn’t come here.

I look around, scanning the room for anything that I might be able to use to defend myself before Leo comes back. I just have to keep myself safe for long enough for my best friend to come here.

Amelia smirks at me in a manner that makes me shiver in disgust and fear, “take her.” She spits like she is talking about a piece of garbage.

And that is when these men start charging towards me and I try to look around before seeing the open bedroom door where I was hiding before.

Realising what I have to do, without saying a word I dash towards the bedroom, wanting nothing more than to close myself inside.

One of the armed men catch hold of my door before I can close it all the way and I jump back before he throws the door open, clearly my strength is no match for his mercenary training and abilities.

“Go away!” I scream, hiding inside the closet, throwing whatever I can find my hands on at them, a vase, a heel, a purse…anything that might hell me run out again.

One of the men grab hold of the back of my head before his fingers dig into my scalp and leveraging me by my hair, the man drags me out of the closet, dragging my body on the floor as I try to loosen his grip by fighting.

However, nothing seems to be working and all I can feel is pain and pure pain as I scream and thrash around and try to hold onto furniture while the mercenary drags me along the floor while handling me with utter ruthlessness as my head hits the corner of the coffee table and I feel a warm liquid dripping down my brow.

My vision starts to get blurry and my entire body slowly starts to go limp as I try to keep myself awake but soon, exhaustion overtakes me and my vision goes dark—

And just before it does, I see Amelia smirking down at me as she says, “he will never be yours, Arabella.”

I don’t want him either…I just want this baby.

⚜️⚜️⚜️

Rhys

Disaster.

This is what I can describe the scene in front of me as.

The entirety of Leo’s living room is trashed— the curtains pulled down, the furniture flipped over, and all of it looks as though Arabella really put up a fight before succumbing to the strength of her captors.

“Just tell me where the f**k have you taken her and we can all rest after that, Rhys…” Leo growls, glaring at me heatedly and leaving me to believe that he still thinks that I would need to kidnap my own wife in order to keep her in my life.

“I have not taken her anywhere!” I snap at him, somehow not taking my gun out like the previous time as I say, “I care about her, Leo. And I know that she’s innocent. Why would I take her anywhere? Especially like this?” I say pointing to everything around me.

However, before Leo can answer, Nikolas calls out from inside, “Rhys! You need to see this.”

And immediately my feet are taking me to the room where Arabella had been living and the only thought that is currently going on in my mind is a fear of something wrong happening to her.

“Where are you?” I ask as I step inside the trashed up room and Leo follows after me.

“In here…”

And the moment I find Nikolas staring at four positive pregnancy test kits lying on the floor in the midst of all the shattered glass and vases, my entire body freezes over and a slapping reality knocks into me as I find out—

Arabella’s pregnant.