The Billionaire's Barren Bride My Revenge Is Worth Billions

I was the scholarship student sponsored by the Sanchez family.

Yet I climbed into the young master's bed and became Mrs. Sanchez.

Everyone said I was shameless and greedythat I wouldn't last five years as Mrs. Sanchez.

They even set up betting pools, wagering on when I'd be thrown out.

But Sid Sanchez entered the bet himself, staking billions, and told everyone:

"I'll take that bet."

"I'm betting that Kate Kaufman and I will grow old together."

I stared at the five-year-old news clip while the woman across from me spoke.

"Sid got tired of you a long time ago."

"Five yearseven a toy has an expiration date."

"Besides" The woman stroked her slightly rounded belly. "I can give him children. Can you?"

"Me?" I looked at her younger face and suddenly laughed. "Of course I'll step aside gracefully."

...

The air went still.

I watched her smug expression freeze in disbelief.

"You're actually agreeing?"

She rose from the sofa.

"What game are you playing?" She studied me as if trying to see through me. "Are you trying to set me up?"

"Or" She grabbed the teacup from the table and hurled it at my feet. "Did you poison this?"

I watched her bristle like a startled hen and found it almost funny. Before I could respond, the butler's voice rang out.

"Sir."

The door swung open.

Sid, whom I hadn't seen in two months, strode straight to the woman.

"Didn't I tell you to let me handle things? That you shouldn't come here?" His voice was gentle, coaxing. "If anything happened to you, what would I do?"

Just hearing his tone sent me drifting back five yearsto when our one-night stand was exposed and the Sanchez family dragged me to the old estate. I knelt in the main hall while his mother, Abigail Sanchez, raised a whip to strike me.

Sid had rushed back then too.

Just as windswept, just as breathless, he'd pulled me into his arms and taken that lash for me, his eyes soft.

"Didn't I tell you to let me handle things?"

"Kate!"

"Who said you could come back here with them?"

He'd held me tight and faced down his entire family.

"I, Sid Sanchez, will only ever want Kate. I don't care if she's poor. I don't care if her father's a shameless gambler or her mother survives on medication. I want Kate, and that's final!"

He took thirty lashes for me. His back was torn to shreds, flesh and blood mingling, yet he clenched his jaw and swore we'd be together for life.

Until his family finally relented.

Just before he collapsed, he managed a pained smile.

"Katie."

"I told youtrust me."

After that, I became Mrs. Sanchez.

With Sid, I escaped the mountains. I personally sent my father to prison and gave my mother access to the best medical care and the best life possible.

Everyone said I'd transformed from a country sparrow into a phoenix.

But I understoodnothing tests sincerity like time.

Now

"Kate."

"What happened todayyou were in the wrong." Sid's gaze settled on me. "No matter how you look at it, Wallis is carrying my child. Even if you're upset, you shouldn't take it out on her."

He glanced at the shattered porcelain by my feet but didn't notice the blood seeping from the cut on my ankle.

"If you're unhappy about something"

"Take it out on me."

He didn't ask for my side. He'd already passed judgment.

"Don't forget."

"How you got that Mrs. Sanchez title in the first place."

I looked at this man who'd shared my bed for five years and still felt like I was seeing a stranger. Beside him, Wallis Fox clung to his arm, sobbing, demanding he take a stand.

Sid just looked at me coldly.

"Kate."

"Apologize to Wallis."

Each word was deliberate.

"Otherwise."

"I can't guarantee your position as Mrs. Sanchez will remain secure."

The Sid who once took thirty lashes of the family whip for me. Who spent billions without blinking. Who lit up the entire night sky over the ocean with fireworks just for me. Who bought a cruise ship and named it after me. Who flew in the world's best medical team for my motherall just to see me smile.

That Sid seemed to have truly vanished.

It was like being yanked back to reality.

I finally understood.

Nothing was more unreliable than a heart freely given.

Just as Sid was certain I would cave to keep my title as Mrs. Sanchez, I pulled out a divorce agreement and placed it on the table.

"Since you've made your choice," I said, watching the shock spread across his face, "here's mine"

I looked at Wallis cowering behind him, her face lighting up with undisguised glee.

I smiled.

"Sign it."

"Sid."

I took out a pen and held it out to him.

"Let's get divorced."

I watched confusion flicker across his face. He stepped forward, mouth openingbut before he could speak, Wallis snatched the pen from my hand, her voice dripping with triumph.

"Well, since you know your place."

"Then hurry up," Wallis shoved the pen into Sid's hand. "She's already signed. Your turn."

"Once you sign."

"Our child won't be illegitimate. Once you sign, we can register our marriage and give me and the baby a proper status."

"Sid."

Wallis pushed at his rigid form, then suddenly burst into tears.

"You don't want to give me and our baby legitimacy, do you?"

She pointed at me through her sobs.

"You still love her, don't you?"

"Everything you did for her back thenevery single thing became gossip for the whole city! Sid! You told me she was your past"

"Kate..."

Sid suddenly shoved Wallis aside. She stumbled, her foot catching on the table leg, and crashed to the floor. Porcelain shards sliced across her palm and cut into her calf, blood seeping steadily from the wounds. Sid's brow furrowed, and he instinctively moved to pick her up.

But Wallis stubbornly demanded he sign first.

Even in that state, she cried and insisted.

"I won't let my child be a bastard!"

"I won't let my child have no status!"

I watched Wallis spiral into hysteria. Watched Sid waver and hesitate. Watched him finally make his decision and meet my eyes.

"Kate."

"Don't regret this."

Sid carried Wallis out. I watched her shoot me a silent, mocking smile over his shoulder. Then Howard's voice reached me.

"Ma'am."

"Why put yourself through this?"

I looked at the wreckage scattered across the floor. At the red staining Wallis's path. At the dried blood crusted around my own ankle. I met Howard's worried gaze and simply smiled.

"I'm fine."

I looked at my phone. Headlines flooded the screen without pause. Sid and Wallis were trending, climbing to the top with that bright red HOT tag beside their names. I tapped on one.

Sid sat at a hospital bedside, tenderly feeding Wallis soup.

The caption read: The Sanchez heir falls for someone new, deaf to his old love's tears.

I tapped another.

Wallis leaned against Sid, knitting tiny baby shoes. Her face glowed with sweetness as she asked him:

"What should we name the baby?"

"Do you want a boy or a girl?"

Sid smiled, soft and warm.

"A girl."

His gaze turned tender.

"If she's like you, that would be perfect."

The caption: The Sanchez heir's happy familya handsome couple made for each other.

I had just closed the page when a message from Wallis popped up on my phone, dripping with smugness.

"Sid has already decided to marry me."

"Kate."

"You're nothing but a cheap little schemer who clawed her way into the position of Mrs. Sanchez."

"I bet you never figured out why you couldn't get pregnant with a Sanchez heir for five whole years, did you?"

Wallis sent a video.

In it, she was straddling Sid, her voice a teasing purr.

"Is my big brother not up to the task?"

"How else could Mrs. Sanchez fail to secure her place with a child after five years?"

Sid's face was flushed with pleasure. He laughed, thrusting up against her.

"Me? Not up to the task?"

I listened to Wallis's breathy moans, then heard Sid's voice again, casual and careless.

"Of course she can't get pregnant. She's just some village girl. And with her father's inferior genes? My parents would never allow it. And I wasn't about to throw away my inheritance for real."

"Slipping her something was hardly difficult for me."

His voice was light, dismissivebut every word was a blade plunging into my chest, twisting.

"Marrying her was already a gift."

"She should spend her whole life grateful for that honor."

"Otherwise..."

"She'd just be merchandise in her father's hands. Sooner or later, she'd end up married to someone just like him."

My vision blurred.

I remembered my mother, beaten until she was half-paralyzed, still using every ounce of strength to hold back my father while screaming for me to run. Run out of these mountains. Find someone powerful. Find protection. Be a free bird. And never look back.

And I did find someone.

I brought Sid back to those mountains in triumph. He looked at our cramped, shabby home without a trace of disgustonly heartache for me. His eyes reddened as he pulled me into his arms.

"Kate."

"I'll never let you suffer again."

Sid brought doctors to examine my mother. He brought bodyguards. He gathered every piece of evidence against my father and personally escorted him to prison, telling him:

"From now on."

"Whenever you see Kate, you keep your head down and your mouth shut."

"Otherwise, I'll make you wish you were dead."

I was finally free of my family. Everything seemed to be getting better. All because of Sid. He gave me a new life. He pulled me out of the abyss, out of those mountains, and shaped me into someone whole. Someone new.

And now I was standing here again.

I looked at the messages Wallis sent like clockwork every day. The billion-dollar bet was all anyone could talk abouteveryone placing wagers on whether I'd be thrown out on the street. Even Wallis had sent a screenshot of her ten-million-dollar stake, telling me:

"Kate."

"Believe it or not."

"I will make sure you're kicked out of the Sanchez family."

At the same time, Sid finally remembered I existed. He deigned to call me, his voice as beautiful as everand just as cold.

"Have you come to your senses yet?"

"You should understand what people are saying out there. If you leave me, Kate, you'll go right back to being the girl everyone stepped on. You'll be that girl from the mountains again, the one who could only look up at life from the gutter. Are you sure you want to crawl back into the sewer and be a rat again?"

Once, I had asked Sid:

"What if one day..."

"You fall out of love with me?"

He just laughed and said it would never happen.

I didn't believe him.

I kept pushing, demanding some kind of guarantee.

In the year when Sid loved me most, he held me in his arms and asked with a smile:

"What kind of guarantee do you want?"

"Whatever it is, I'll give it to you."

I asked for a billion dollars.

I took that billion in cash and paid off the media. I planted the stories myselfmocking headlines about how I'd schemed my way to the top, how I'd trapped the Sanchez heir into marrying me. I bought up every front page and launched the bet myself.

A game.

A gamble designed specifically for Sid Sanchez.

"Kate."

Sid's voice still echoed in my ear.

"Do you realize you were wrong?"

He continued, "As long as you admit your mistake, I'll forgive your recklessness and register Wallis's child under your name."

My mind flashed to the video Wallis had sent me, remembering how casually Sid had told her:

"Marrying her was already a gift."

"With the inferior genes she inherited from her father, how could she possibly be worthy of bearing my child?"

And then I remembered.

I had accompanied Sid to see countless doctorsnot just Western medicine specialists, but traditional Chinese practitioners too. He was willing to try any remedy, any folk cure. Sid, who had never believed in gods or Buddha, had even been willing to fast and pray, kneeling before the Buddha for seven straight days, all for the sake of having a child.

Even when the results remained disappointing, he would force a smile to keep me from feeling sad.

"It's okay, Katie."

"Even without children, you're still the love of my life."

"I'm the one who doesn't have the fortune to become a father."

I wasn't unmoved. Sid's devotion seemed genuine, and for him, I endured five years of IVF treatments.

The needles that pierced my body over those years were beyond counting.

Every time, Sid's eyes would redden with heartache as he held me.

"Katie."

"I'm so sorry."

Back then, I always thought I was the one holding him back. Part of me genuinely believed he loved me.

But when the truth finally came outwhen it revealed itself in the ugliest possible wayI thought I would stay calm. I thought my heart wouldn't waver. Instead, I broke down crying, sobbing until I completely fell apart, screaming until my voice gave out entirely.

And now.

Listening to Sid speak down to me from his high horse, hearing him offer me charity:

"Kate."

"Don't be so stubborn."

I suddenly laughed out loud.

"Mr. Sanchez."

He went silent. I continued, my voice dripping with mockery: "Are you trying to back down but can't find an excuse, so you're using this pathetic tactic to wait for me to bow my head first?"

"Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you."

My voice was calm, deliberate.

"These five years with Mr. Sanchez"

"I had a wonderful time."

"Since we've decided to part ways, I hope Mr. Sanchez won't cling too desperately. It would only add to my annoy"

"Kate!"

Sid's voice exploded with rage. Through the phone, I heard Wallis's voice in the background.

"Sid."

"Who are you calling?"

The line went dead.

I received a message from Sid on my phone.

[Kate!]

[I've spoiled you too much! You've forgotten your place, haven't you!]

I didn't respond.

I simply watched the clock, watching as my bank balance suddenly jumped to an astronomical figure. At the very moment countless people were waiting to see me thrown out on the street, I handed Howard a red envelope, said my goodbyes, and got into my friend's car.

One last time, I looked at the house through the window.

Then I never looked back.

Sid's assistant interrupted him while he was assembling a crib with Wallis. His brow furrowed.

"What is it?"

Wallis pouted, her face full of resentment. "Why do they keep interrupting our time together?"

Sid murmured something to soothe her, but the assistant spoke first.

"Sir!"

"That gamble!"

The assistant hesitated, but Sid's heart lurched. The assistant walked up to him with a document and announced:

"It's over!"

He flipped to the last page. Written there in stark black and white: he had lost ten billion dollars.

And the name of the only person who had dared to bet against him had finally been uncovered.

His breath caught. The documents slipped from his fingers and scattered across the floor.

There, in the name field, printed in stark black ink: Kate Kaufman.