Read Online HIS: An Alpha Billionaire Romance (Part Three) by Glenna Sinclair - Free Book Online Page B

up with it for two years, and she seemed to think she’d won some war between us because her behavior grew increasingly worse. She had open affairs. She showed up late to important dinners and parties, usually stoned out of her mind. She picked fights with me on the sets of my movies.” He shook his head. “She took every opportunity she could find to embarrass me until I had enough. I filed for divorce and she kept to her word. She OD’d on cocaine downstairs in my office. Adam found her passed out on top of the paperwork my attorney sent.”
    “Oh, wow…”
    Nicolas nodded. “So I couldn’t divorce her. I couldn’t do anything. She was unstable. So I stayed and tried to make it work. She moved into the guest room down the hall, continued to have her boyfriends over, continued to do whatever the hell she wanted to do. I managed to keep most of it under wraps, thanks to my loyal friends and staff. But, I guess, that turned out to be a mistake, too, because the public had no clue how bad things were when she died.” He ran his hand over my palm. “She would attack me. She’d come at me with her claws out, trying to tear out my eyes for some perceived slight. It could be almost anything that set her off. I wasn’t home on time. I gave an interview she didn’t know about. I didn’t tell her that her mother called. It didn’t matter. And she would attack me, and I would grab her wrists to hold her off.”
    “And leave bruises.”
    He looked at me, his eyes sliding to my throat. “I tried not to hurt her, but sometimes I had no choice.”
    I slid closer to him, pressing my forehead to his shoulder. “And the night she died?”
    He stiffened a little, but his hands came around me and the tension slowly left his body.
    “I went to ask her for a divorce.” He kissed the top of my head. “I kissed you that night, and I realized that I couldn’t do it anymore. I couldn’t pretend anymore. I had to get out. But she was belligerent, as usual. Told me she’d agreed to the surrogacy to keep me happy. That she was giving me a family just like I’d wanted when we got married. The least I could do was continue to play along. She said if I waited until the baby was born, she’d consider giving me a divorce then. But if I left before she was ready, she’d make sure I never saw the kid.”
    I nodded, almost aware of what he was going to say before the words were out of his mouth. It all made so much sense. Aurora needed Nicolas. She needed his name and his money to be someone in Hollywood. She had a few movies under her belt when she met him, but she never would have become the starlet she was if she hadn’t married him. It was his star that made hers shine brighter. She knew she couldn’t lose that if she had any hope of taking her career any further. So she used everything she could to keep him under control. His sense of decency, his kindness, and his desire for a family.
    No wonder she’d been so excited about the babies. She knew how he would respond to any threat against his child.
    “I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I’m so sorry.”
    “For what?” He took my face in his hands and lifted it so he could see me. “What do you have to be sorry for?”
    “For doubting you, even briefly. I knew this couldn’t be true, that you would never—”
    He kissed me, cutting off my words. I moved closer to him, grateful he wasn’t angry with me, that he didn’t just get up and walk away from me. Grateful that we might have a chance to survive all of this. Grateful that Aurora’s schemes and deceit had brought us together.
    “I love you,” he whispered against my lips. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you all of this before.”
    “The pills—”
    “No,” he said. “You don’t have to tell me.”
    “They’re not mine. I thought they were yours.”
    He pulled back. “What do you mean?”
    “They were in your bathroom, in the false bottom of a drawer.”
    He cursed, using words I don’t think I’d ever