Page 114 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 2

Isabella smiled and shook her head. She quickly turned around.

"Porter!" I yelled.

Three shots rang out and Porter fell to his knees. Three holes appeared on the front of his shirt.

"Porter!" I choked. I didn't want to be weak in front of Isabella. But I had just gotten to know Cole. He was sweet and kind. He had a girlfriend that he was missing. He stood by James' hospital door every day to make sure he was safe. I owed everything to him. He put himself at risk every day for me and James. And now... I watched Porter's lifeless body fall forwards and hit the ground with a sickening thud. Now, he was dead because of me. I let my tears fall down my cheeks. I let the guilt swallow me whole. Because nothing mattered now. Porter was my only chance at surviving this. Isabella was going to kill me next.

"Kneel on the fucking ground, Penny." She grabbed Porter's gun and slid it into her pants pocket.

I knelt down in the ever expanding pool of blood by Rob's head.

"Porter's body complicates things slightly." Isabella sighed. "We'll need a new scenario now." She tapped her gloved finger to her lips. "Okay, here's what happened. You and Rob were fighting upstairs. You didn't want him to tell James the truth. So you shot him at the top of the steps." A shot rang out as she shot Rob in the shoulder.

"No!" God, Rob.

Isabella laughed. "Don't worry. Odds are he's already dead." She cleared her throat. "And after you shot him, the force of it made him fall down the stairs. Dead. Porter rushed in because he heard the gunshot. So you decided to shoot him too. Because you're the fucking worst! God, you really are a bitch. And then you realized you made a terrible mistake. You realized that you just murdered two people in your crazy rampage. There's no coming back from that. Such an awful feeling. It just ate you up inside. Your only redemption was to kill yourself after it's all said and done."

She smiled her cruel smile. "And the best part? Everyone will think you were the one that tried to kill James on your wedding night. Maybe Rob persuaded you to run away with him. And then after your plans went south, you changed your mind. This bloodbath was the only way out in your delusional mind."

"I'm not the delusional one."

"In the eyes of the whole world, you're about to be." She lifted her gun.

"Okay. Okay, Isabella, you win."

"Of course I win. I wouldn't have played this game if it was possible to lose. Everything is always stacked in my favor. I'm Isabella fucking Hunter."

"I'll divorce him. You don't have to kill me."

"Maybe that would work if you didn't get knocked up like the slut that you are. But James has a soft spot for children."

She really didn't know him at all. "He doesn't. He doesn't even want kids. And he doesn't know I'm pregnant. He doesn't need to know. I'll disappear. You'll never see me again." I was lying through my teeth. If she let me go, the first thing I would do would be to find a police officer at another precinct. One that she wasn't in bed with.

Isabella eyed me coolly. "He really told you that he doesn't want kids? That's rather ironic since it was the only reason he married me."

My heart seemed to skip a beat. "What?"

She laughed. "He never tells you anything, does he?"

Don't listen to her.My last thoughts would not be about James lying to me.

"I told him I was pregnant. He always believed everything I told him. That's probably why he has such a hard time trusting you."

"Were you actually pregnant?"

"Of course not. I would never risk my figure for children. That's what surrogates are for." She waved her hand dismissively. "And when I told him I lost the baby, it brought us closer together. That was the happiest time in our marriage."

"When he was depressed about losing a child?"

"No. When he leaned on me. When he needed me." She took a step forward. "And it all made sense when I found out you were pregnant. He was marrying you out of obligation instead of love. It gave me the hope I needed."

"He doesn't know that I'm pregnant."

"You're a terrible liar."

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Porter stir.He's alive. Oh my God, he's alive!"I'm not lying. James doesn't know. And he never has to."

"Exactly." She took a step forward.