My Billionaire Husband Sent $500K. I Got $300. novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Signed in Full

Hatch lays out three months of receipts in Callie's own signature and calls her confused; Dario sees her belly and learns he has stayed away for three months for nothing.

Lowell Hatch crossed the suite with a leather folder under one arm.

He wore a worried frown.

"Mr. Corvino, I came as soon as I heard," he said. "I'm so sorry. I was afraid she might do something like this."

Dario did not look at him.

"Everyone out," he said to the room. "Now."

The four men at the table stood up fast.

Rocco took his time with his chair.

"Cousin, it's your house," he said. "But a wife who hits you in front of staff will do it again."

"Out, Rocco."

Rocco went, and he looked back at me from the door.

The guards shut it behind him.

That left three of us in a room full of cigar smoke.

"Say it again," Dario told Lowell. "Slowly. How much does my wife receive every month?"

"Five hundred thousand, sir, exactly as you ordered."

"I get three hundred dollars," I said.

Lowell sighed, a sad, patient sigh.

He opened the folder and laid pages on the card table one by one.

Every page had a line at the bottom that said *Received in full: $500,000.*

Every page had my signature.

"Three months of receipts, Mr. Corvino. Mrs. C signed for every dollar in my presence."

I picked up the top page and my stomach dropped.

"These are the forms with the blue flags," I said. "You told me they were for the bank. I never read them. You said the envelope couldn't be released without them."

"Mrs. C." Lowell's voice was gentle. "You've been under such strain. I understand."

"I'm not confused."

"You told me yourself, in June," he said softly, "that you wanted no visits. That you only wanted the money. I begged you to reconsider."

I stared at him.

He looked back at me with those kind eyes behind the round glasses.

"I never said that," I whispered. "Not once. I begged you to tell him I was pregnant."

Dario went completely still.

Lowell's face changed just a little, a flicker of surprise that he smoothed away.

"Pregnant," Dario said.

I put my hand against the side of my belly without meaning to.

The cheap uniform pulled tight across it, and for the first time he saw.

His gaze went to my stomach and stayed there.

"Lowell," he said quietly. "Did you know about this?"

"Mrs. C asked me to keep it from you, sir. She was afraid you would force her to give it up."

"That's a lie!" My voice cracked across the room. "I asked you every month!"

"Lowell."

Dario had not raised his voice.

He did not need to.

"Go downstairs. Do not leave the building. Do not make a phone call."

"Of course." Lowell gathered his folder with his small, tidy hands. "Mrs. C, please be careful. Those service stairs are steep for a woman in your condition."

I thought it was a kind thing to say.

I really did.

The door closed behind him.

Then it was only the two of us, and the smoke, and the red print of my hand on his face.

Dario crossed the room slowly.

He stopped an arm's length away and did not touch me.

"Whose child is it?"

The question was low and rough, and I could hear that he hated asking it.

"Yours," I said. "Unless you have another wife I don't know about."

He flinched.

I had never seen him flinch.

"Sixteen weeks," I said. "And the only number I had for you was Lowell's."

Dario's hand came up to cover his mouth.

His eyes had gone red at the edges.

"I was told you wanted a clean break," he said. "I was told you smiled when you said it."

"Who told you?"

He did not answer.

He did not have to.

"Did you ever," he said, very carefully, "ask me to stay away from you?"

"No."

"Not once? Not through anyone?"

"I would have crawled to your door, Dario. I had no way to find you."

He closed his eyes.

When he opened them, something in his face had broken.

"Callie," he said. "I have been twelve minutes from your apartment for three months."

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