My Crippled Husband Is a Secret Billionaire

. It was a physical weight, pressing down on Stella's shoulders, hea

alone at

, itching against her skin. The officiant, a kindly old man with bushy eyebrows, cleared hi

u

-knuckled hand vibrated. It was

part of her gut that processed fear before her brain could catch u

this. Monica nee

p. It didn't spin. I

ing like a funeral home. The marble floor beneath her heels felt li

ho had zipped up this dress three hour

ell

he front pew. Mrs. Da

rusted joints. Mrs. Dalton was rushing toward her, her face arranged i

ched out, her manicured claws digging into Stella's bare arm. "He called me. He said he

Stella like a

foc

ent. She had built his portfolio. She had ironed his shirts th

white-hot, repl

the crowd-the whispers were starting now, a low hum of g

d. Her voice was low, unre

ton hissed, her smile tightening. "We'

rm away. The fricti

dollars. It had taken three fittings to get right. She tore it off. Pins scraped against her sca

marble floor. It landed in a heap of

unned officiant's stand. The feedback

e stained glass. "The groom is currently comforting the maid of hono

t the floor with a thud th

and marched

tears will fall, and you will not give them that.

ribs, a frantic bird trying to break

bronze doors of the cathedra

ty-taxis honking, tourists chatting, the rumble of a bus-washe

down the concrete

der her heel. Gravity took over. She pitched forward, bracing her hand

your

low. Baritone.

he railing, wrenching her

pillar, away from the flow of tou

like it was carved from granite, and hair the color of midnight. But his eyes were what stopped her bre

was dressed for a wedding, but he

n Sterling. The "Cursed Son." The Sterling family outcast who had been paralyzed in a

at her face. He didn't offer

day?" h

udge of mascara from under her eye with the back of her hand. "You c

nge. He adjusted the cuff of h

ve offended her. Instead, it grounded her. He wasn't looking at her

of the adrenaline flooding her veins. It was born of the fact that she had ju

dress pooling around her on the di

single?"

er-really looked at her-for the first time. He saw the smear of makeup. He saw the tre

almost imperceptible motion. A burly man in a

e. My family is threatening to enact a competency clause. They want

line she was looking at. But he needed a shield. He needed a distraction to keep his uncle's spies away whi

oice shaking. "I need to save my digni

e," Julian mused. "Transa

ous," Ste

e street. "The City Clerk's office is in Lower Ma

hind her, where her life had just imploded. The

and ripped. The expensive silk tore with a satisfying shh

elchair and gripped the h

go," sh

nd hailed a taxi with the fe

stared out the window, watching the city streak by, her heart still rac

guard was locking the doors. Stella practically threw herse

ith cat-eye glasses, looked up from her crossword puzzle. She loo

he asked, po

in silence. The pen felt sli

Stella

ulian S

eady. He signed with a flourish, a sharp, angu

or twenty dollars each. Cheap gold-plated band

tate of New York," the clerk droned

s. Jus

e building into the twilight. Th

fading, replaced by a bone-deep exhaustion. She loo

ounding very small in the b