All Chapters of MARRYING THE HIDDEN BILLONAIRE: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

The air hit my face as we pushed through the stadium doors. My feet ached from running, but I didn’t stop. I didn’t want to stop. The man walked beside me, silent, his steps steady. His presence was strangely comforting. We reached a sleek black car parked near the exit. He pulled open the door. “Get in.” I hesitated. “I don’t even know your name.” He tilted his head slightly. “And yet, you kissed me, and asked me to take you home” My face burned. “I… I wasn’t thinking.” His lips twitched in amusement, but his eyes remained unreadable. “Angie, right?” I frowned. “How do you know?” He gave a small chuckle. “Everyone knows.” Right. I was Angie Harper, the pop sensation. The girl whose wedding just turned into a national scandal. Tears pricked my eyes again, but I blinked them away. “You’re not going back in there, are you?” he asked. I swallowed hard, shaking my head. “No… please just take me away from here to an hotel or something.” “Then get in.”

I rushed back to the hotel, my heart was pounding. My hands shook as I knocked on the door of the room where I had left Reed. No answer. I knocked again, harder this time. Nothing. “Excuse me,” I called out to a passing housekeeper. “The man who was staying in this room, do you know where he went?” She gave me a polite but unhelpful smile. “I believe he checked out early this morning, miss.” Checked out. He was gone. I didn’t even know his last name, I thought. Just Reed. Just a stranger who had been there when I needed someone the most. And now he was gone. Tears burned my eyes as I turned away, feeling more lost than ever. I had no choice but to go back home, to face my reality. Back at the house, I shut the door behind me and leaned against it, exhaling shakily. I made it to my bedroom before I collapsed onto my bed, crying into my pillow. Everything hurts. Giovanni’s betrayal, the humiliation, the fact that I had kissed a stranger on live television. And now, I had

The days after the wedding passed slowly. Reed barely spoke to me. He was polite when he had to be, but that was it. No jokes, no smiles, no warmth. Just silence. I tried to act normal at first. I made breakfast once. He didn’t eat it. Just said he wasn’t hungry. I left music playing in the background to ease the silence. He turned it off. He wasn’t mean. Just… distant. Cold. I didn’t understand what I had done. I thought we were starting to get along. The pancakes, the small talks. Then, boom; nothing. Now, he came home late. He took calls in the bedroom with the door locked. He would whisper into the phone and hang up quickly whenever I got close. I tried not to care. I reminded myself it was all fake. Just a contract. A lie to protect my image. But it still hurt. One night, I curled up on the couch, scrolling through old photos on my phone. Me and Giovanni. Smiling at the beach. Laughing at some awards show. God, I used to be so happy. Now, I lived with a st

Giovanni was still texting me. Every single day. “Please, Angie. Talk to me.” “I miss you.” “I know I messed up, but I still love you.” I ignored them all. I tried to move on, but every time his name popped up on my screen, something twisted in my chest. Reed saw the texts once. I noticed the way his jaw tightened, but he didn’t say anything. He never did. That was the thing about him; he saw everything but kept it all inside. We were doing okay. Some days we laughed. We shared meals. We even binge-watched a crime show one night. It felt… normal. But then, there were days he’d go cold again. Distant. He would answer with one-word replies or disappear for hours. When he was kind, it was easy to pretend we were real. When he was cold, I reminded myself it was all fake. Still, I didn’t ask questions. I didn’t ask why he left at night. I didn’t ask who was always calling him. I didn’t ask what he was hiding. Because I wasn’t sure I was ready to hear the truth. My career