He Chose Her Over Us

---- Chapter 5 Belen Porter POV: Gregory burst through the door of our house like a hurricane, his face a thunderous mask of fury. "Where is she?" he roared, his eyes scanning the room as if expecting to find Adrianna tied up in a closet. "Good evening to you too, Gregory," | said, not looking up from the book | was pretending to read. "Don't play games with me, Belen! Adrianna is missing. Her neighbors said they saw a car matching your description near her apartment. What did you do to her?" | finally met his gaze, my own expression a cool, placid lake.

"Are you truly so incompetent that you can' t keep track of your own mistress?" "She is not my mistress!" he yelled, slamming his fist on the coffee table. "She' s a vulnerable woman who you have terrorized out of jealousy!" "Jealousy?" | laughed, a sharp, humorless sound. "Oh, Gregory. You flatter yourself. You' re confusing jealousy with disgust." | stood up, circling him like a predator. "You want to know what | did? | did nothing. Because she is nothing to me. ---- But you? You brought a snake into our home, and now you' re shocked that you' ve been bitten." "She would never hurt anyone!

She' s not like you, Belen. You' re cold, you' re vindictive..." "And she's the saint who left you for dead in a car wreck," | finished for him. His face contorted, caught between his guilt and his delusion. Before he could retort, his phone rang. He snatched it up, his expression shifting to one of raw panic. It was a video call. On the screen, Adrianna was sobbing, her hands tied behind her back. Two masked men stood behind her. "Velazquez," one of the men growled. "We have your girlfriend. Ten million dollars, untraceable, by midnight.

Or the baby comes out the hard way." Gregory' s blood ran cold. "You touch her, and | will hunt you to the ends of the earth," he snarled, his voice a low, dangerous promise. The man on the screen laughed. "Big words. But your wife here seems to think you won't pay. In fact, she seemed pretty happy to help us set this whole thing up." Adrianna began to wail. "No, Greg, it' s not true! Belen wouldn' t do this! She was angry, but she wouldn't... she wouldn' t..." Her voice trailed off, her performance of defending me the most damning accusation of all.

---- Gregory' s head snapped toward me, his eyes burning with a hatred so pure it scorched me. "You," he breathed, the word dripping with venom. "This was you. You set this up." "Don' t be ridiculous," | said, though my heart was pounding. "It all makes sense! Your family' s company has been struggling. You' re desperate for money, and you' re furious that ' m giving it to her instead of propping up your father' s failed legacy!" The accusation was so vile, so far from the truth, it stole the air from my lungs.

My love, my support, the sacrifices | had made for him-he had just erased them all, rewriting me as a greedy, manipulative monster. The years | had spent loving him shriveled up and died in that moment. "Gregory, stop," he said, seeing the utter devastation on my face. "I didn' t mean..." "No," | said, my voice a dead whisper. "You meant every word." He didn' t have time to apologize. He grabbed my arm, his grip like steel. "Get in the car. You created this mess, you' re going to help me fix it.".

He dragged me out of the house, his rage a tangible force, shoving me into the passenger seat with no regard for my condition The drive to the abandoned factory was a blur of terror and heartbreak. He kept glancing at me, his face a knot of fury and disgust. "You did this," he kept muttering. "You did this." ---- When we arrived, the scene was exactly as the video had shown. Adrianna was tied to a chair, weeping. One of the men held a knife to her throat. Gregory' s focus was entirely on her. "Adrianna! Are you okay?" he cried out, his voice thick with concern.

"| have the money," he told the kidnappers. "Let her go." The man with the knife chuckled. "Not so fast. We want a trade. Your pregnant wife for your pregnant girlfriend. Seems fair, doesn't it?" Gregory froze. He looked from Adrianna' s terrified face to my own. | saw the calculation in his eyes, the cold, brutal weighing of his options. Of our lives. My heart hammered against my ribs. He wouldn' t. He couldn' t "Gregory?" | whispered, my voice trembling. He wouldn' t look at me. His gaze was fixed on Adrianna. "Fine," he said, his voice flat and dead. "Take her." The world stopped.

The air turned to ice in my lungs. He had chosen. He had chosen to sacrifice me, to sacrifice our child, for her. He grabbed my arm and shoved me forward, directly into the path of the kidnappers. "Go on," he said, his voice as cold as atombstone. "This is what you wanted." ---- | stumbled, my balance thrown. My foot caught on a piece of loose metal, and | fell hard, my stomach hitting the concrete floor with a sickening impact. A blinding, white-hot pain exploded in my abdomen. | cried out, clutching my stomach, and when | pulled my hand away, it was covered in blood.

Through a haze of pain, | looked up. Gregory saw the blood. He saw my crumpled form on the ground. And he did nothing. He turned his back on me, rushed to Adrianna, and scooped her into his arms. He carried her out of the factory, never once looking back at the wife he was leaving to die on a dirty floor. The masked men started toward me. | closed my eyes, the image of Gregory' s back burned into my mind. | thought of my baby. A single, hot tear traced a path through the grime on my cheek.

The last thing | saw before the darkness swallowed me was a flash of movement in the doorway, a familiar silhouette against the dying light. Then, nothing.