07BarteredPainThe BillionairesWifeARE (5 page)

Anton seemed to
shrink. "It was him. He offered you up as a bargaining chip."

My eyes stung.
"So you didn't want me?"

"I did. You were
what tipped the scales."

He'd wanted me and
he'd bought me. It was nothing I didn't know. But for some reason a lump of
misery curdled in my stomach. "And my mother? Did you know she wasn't
sick?"

Slowly, Anton nodded.
“Your father told me of her addiction when we met. He said nothing of any
illness.”

"When did you
figure out that I thought I was helping my mother?"

Now it was Anton who
looked sick. "The day after we were married," he said.

In my chest, my heart
collapsed. Two weeks ago. He'd known for
two
weeks.
A lump sat in my
throat, too large to swallow around.

I stood up. “You lied
to me.”

He was quiet for a
moment. “I didn't know how to tell you,” he said finally. “I thought it was
between you and your parents. I tried to get you to talk to your mother...”

“You said you wanted
a companion,” I told him. “Is this how you treat someone who trusts you? You
buy me, you realize I agreed under false pretenses, and then you don't tell
me?”

He had no answer for
that. The silence between us stretched out, and I wondered how many other
things he hid from me. Why was he like this? What was his past? What was in his
basement?

Who was Anton Waters?

I didn't know. I'd
probably never known. And right now, I didn't care.

“I have to go,” I
said.

He didn't stop me,
merely stepped away from the doorway.

I passed him by, and
I didn't cry until I was halfway down the street.

* * *

To be continued in
Bartered
Betrayal: The Billionaire's Wife, Part 8!

About the Author

Ava Lore was raised by wombats and
lives to corrupt the innocent. When she's not writing erotic romance, she
spends her time thinking about writing erotic romance and drinking enough iced
coffee to kill a musk ox.

Discover more titles by
Ava
Lore at AllRomanceeBooks.com
.

You can email Ava Lore at
[email protected]
or catch up
with her at
authoravalore.com
. She
yearns for your approval and always loves to hear from fans. Want more BBW?
More Billionaires? More aliens? More menage? Something entirely different? Let
her know!

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The Billionaire's Wife (A Reluctant BDSM Erotic Romance):

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