ONE WILD NIGHT
She's lying," he tells the cameras. But the truth in his eyes says otherwise.
Struggling on scholarship and multiple jobs to support her family, she never expected one night to change everything. But when a pregnancy test confirms her worst fears, the father, a billionaire's heir, publicly denies her claims to protect his own future.
Now she's fighting a battle on two fronts: keeping her scholarship while raising a child alone, and facing down one of the most powerful families in the country.
In a world where money talks and reputations can be bought, she has only one weapon, the truth.
But when lies have billion dollar consequences, will the truth be enough to survive?
Chapters
Share
Chapter 7
I shouldn't have turned on the TV.
I knew it the second his face filled the screen.
Alexander Stone stood in his perfect suit, while Victoria Blackwell held onto his arm like a queen beside her king. The cameras loved them, shining and graceful, as if they were made for the spotlight. Maybe they were.
I was just the girl sitting in a cramped dorm room, the ceiling light buzzing weakly above me, wrapped in the same hoodie I'd thrown on after class.
"Play it again," I whispered, though no one was there to hear. My thumb trembled as I turned the volume up.
The anchor's voice poured from the tiny screen, calm but cruel, slicing through me with every word.
"In a shocking press conference earlier today, billionaire heir Alexander Stone and finance Victoria Blackwell addressed the rumors of an alleged affair and pregnancy. Stone strongly denied the claims, calling them, quote, a desperate attempt at financial extortion."
The clip rolled, and there he was again ,Alex. My Alex.
Only he wasn't mine anymore. Maybe he never had been.
She's lying. That's what his mouth said. His lips shaped the words with cold certainty.
But his eyes...
God help me, I knew his eyes. I'd traced every line of them that night on the balcony. They hadn't been cold then. They'd been searching, drowning, clinging to me like I was the first breath after years underwater.
And even now, with the cameras flashing, I saw it,the flicker of guilt, the quick dart away from the lens. He couldn't even look straight into the crowd when he called me a liar.
The room spun, and I sat down hard on the edge of my bed.
Zoe wasn't here. She had a late class, thank God. Because if she saw me like this ,shaking, pale, staring at the screen as my whole life went up in flames ,she'd never let me wallow in peace.
The segment ended, replaced by a panel of commentators picking apart every second.
"Notice how he avoided details," one said.
"Classic move," another added. "If she has no proof, this woman is finished. His word against hers? She'll lose."
"woman". He couldn't even say my name. But by tomorrow, everyone on campus would know it anyway.
The gossip blogs had already put my picture beside Alex's. My face caught in blurry elevator camera shots. My hand resting on my stomach in the clinic , My shame was out there for the world to see.
What would my professors think? My scholarship committee? Am in trouble,Would they believe him too? The billionaire with the perfect suit and diamond-ringed fiancée, or the broke scholarship girl who worked nights in a restaurant?
I buried my face in my hands, but the images burned behind my eyelids.
I thought of Mom. Of the small TV in her hospital room, the one she kept on for company when she couldn't sleep through the pain. Was she watching right now? Did she hear her daughter's name thrown around as a liar, a gold digger, a scandal?
What would I say to her when I visited tomorrow? Hi Mom, how are you feeling today? By the way, the father of my baby just told the entire world I don't exist.
And Jake sweet Jake. Fifteen, smart, still holding on to his innocence. How long before kids at school showed him the headlines? Before he had to defend me, defend us, from their jokes and whispers?
I pulled my knees to my chest, curling in on myself, as if I could shrink small enough to vanish.
"I should never have gone," I whispered into the empty room. "I should've stayed home, studied, worked another shift... anything but that night."
One night. One careless choice. One moment I let myself feel, let myself want, let myself be human.
Now it had cost me everything.
And yet... my hand went to my stomach. The faintest swell too small for anyone else to see, but real to me. Beneath my palm, a life beat. Mine and his. A piece of that night that couldn't be erased, no matter what he told the cameras.
Regret cut through me like a knife. Not for the baby ,never for the baby. But for trusting him. For believing the man who once listened to me on the balcony, who looked at me like I was more than a scholarship case, would stand by me now.
The panel kept talking.
"Westfield University is expected to investigate whether Miss Collins broke the student conduct code, considering her scholarship terms..."
My blood ran cold. Of course. They'd use this to strip me of the one thing I'd fought hardest for. Without that scholarship, I couldn't finish my degree. Without a degree, I couldn't support Mom and Jake.
My future was slipping away, all because I'd believed in a stranger on a balcony.
I pressed the power button on the remote, plunging the room into silence. But silence was worse , it left me alone with my thoughts, my shame, my fear.
I pulled open my laptop. Emails flooded in faster than I could delete them. Journalists, tabloids, strangers with opinions. Some called me a liar, some a whore, some offered me money for interviews.
I slammed the laptop shut and pressed my face into the pillow, smothering the scream that burned in my throat.
I couldn't break down. Not now. Not with Mom counting on me. Not with Jake needing me. Not with this tiny heartbeat inside me depending on me to be strong.
But God, it hurt.
For a moment, I let the tears out, endless, shaking my whole body. Sobs that left me gasping like I was drowning. Just like he once said he was. Maybe we were both drowning. Only he'd grabbed the lifeboat of lies and left me to go under.
When the sobs slowed, I rolled onto my back and stared at the ceiling.
Somewhere deep inside, under the grief, under the humiliation, a spark burned. Small, but there.
I couldn't match the Stones in money or power. But I had something else. The truth.
And the truth would have to be enough.
I wiped my eyes, pulled the blanket around me, and whispered to the life inside me, "I don't know how yet. But I will fight for us. Even if everyone says I'm lying."
Saying it made me steadier, even while my heart broke.
Tomorrow, I'd have to face Mom. Jake. My professors. Maybe even the university board.
Tomorrow, the real fight would start.
But tonight, I lay in the dark, hand resting on my stomach, and made my child a promise.
"They can take my name, my scholarship, my reputation. But they will never take you."
I closed my eyes, feeling the echo of Alex's denial still ringing in my ears.
And for the first time, I wondered if the night on the balcony had been a miracle or a curse.
You may also like
7.4
Forced into an unwanted marriage, quiet schoolteacher Delina Brooks is bound to Andrew Kingsley.He is a ruthless billionaire musician, cold and arrogant, and he hates Delina from the moment they wed.
But Andrew's world is not just his own. His glamorous ex-girlfriend, Camilla Laurent, and his manipulative sister, Veronica, are determined to destroy Delina-and reclaim Andrew for themselves. Surrounded by lies, secrets, and relentless enemies, Delina must fight for her dignity, her family, and her future.
As fate twists and turns, one question remains: Will the woman he despised become the only one he can't live without?
9.6
Areli was the hardest-working medic in the Blackridge Clan, but her efforts only earned her the title of a useless burden.
Her supposed lover, Eugene, and her senior mentor, Gloria, lured her to the edge of the deadly Blackwind Cliff and shoved her straight into the abyss.
She miraculously survived the freefall, only to return and find Gloria standing before the entire clan, wearing a mask of fake sorrow.
"Look! The traitor is back! She eloped with wild males!" Gloria shrieked.
Eugene stepped up, looking heartbroken, and publicly accused her of betraying his love.
The crowd erupted, raining hisses and boos upon her, completely ignoring the horrific, life-threatening bruises that covered her battered body.
They blindly believed the lies, treating her like garbage while Gloria secretly plotted to poison her water and destroy her completely.
Areli felt a chilling sense of betrayal. How could the man who claimed to love her watch her fall with such cold eyes?
To make matters worse, her modern biochemist instincts revealed a terrifying truth: she was unexpectedly pregnant with the child of a savage Warlord she had encountered in the wild.
In this brutal, primitive world, showing any weakness was an absolute death sentence.
But she wasn't going to cower or run away.
Refusing the Warlord's offer to simply rescue her, Areli calmly placed a highly toxic herb on her drying rack and left her tent flap open.
The bait was set. Now, she just had to wait for the screams.
7.7
The Cameron family clinic smelled like lemon polish and impending death. For three years, I'd been a vessel in a cold, forced marriage to Underboss Kade Cameron. But today, the doctor's words would shatter everything.
"No heartbeat," Dr. Finch declared, then, "Stage IV gastric cancer. Terminal." A double death sentence. As the world tilted, a news alert flashed: Kade, my husband, parading his mistress, Carla Shaw, across Europe-"a love that defies family lines."
Dying and carrying his dead child, I overheard nurses gossip Kade wanted me gone for his "true love." I chose to feel the D&C agony, cleansing him from my soul. Stumbling out, Kade accused me of killing his child, then rushed Carla, feigning illness, to OB/GYN, ignoring my bleeding and dying state.
Back at the mansion, I vomited blood, my body failing. Kade watched with disgust, dismissing my terminal diagnosis as a "performance." He called me "collateral," a "debt payment," then left me for his mistress. The last shred of loyalty shattered, replaced by chilling clarity.
I signed the divorce papers he dismissed as a "tantrum," leaving his ring. No longer a Cameron, no longer his possession. With Fluffy, I made one call, choosing to die on my own terms, finally free.
7.0
Five years after my ex, Clay, traded me for power, we met again at an exclusive summit. He and his new fiancée, Destany, publicly humiliated me, calling me a trespasser and a thief for looking for my son's lost locket.
Then, my three-year-old son, Justus, ran to me, crying "Mama!"
In a horrifying move, Destany snatched him from my arms.
She shrieked to the powerful crowd that I was a low-born commoner who had kidnapped a child of noble blood. The room erupted, calling for my arrest.
Clay, the man I once loved, watched with cold satisfaction as guards pinned my arms back. He ordered them to take my son away and deal with me. I screamed that Justus was mine, but my pleas were drowned out by their accusations.
How could this be happening? The man who once promised me everything was now helping to rip my child away from me, branding me a criminal.
But just as they were about to drag me away, an immense power slammed into the room, forcing everyone to their knees. A tall, imposing figure appeared, his golden eyes blazing with fury. My husband, Damien, had arrived.
7.3
Seven years ago, my fiancé, Don Dante Moretti, sent me to prison to take the fall for my adopted sister, Chiara. He called it a gift-a way to protect me from a worse fate.
Today, he picked me up from prison only to abandon me at my family's estate. His reason? Chiara was having another one of her "episodes."
My parents then informed me I'd be staying in the third-floor storage room, so as not to disturb the fragile girl who stole my life.
They celebrated her "recovery" with a lavish dinner party, while I was treated like a ghost. When I refused to join, my mother hissed that I was ungrateful, and my father called me jealous.
They assumed I couldn't understand their venomous whispers. But prison was my university. I learned Spanish. I understood every word.
It was then I realized I wasn't just a sacrifice; I was disposable. The love I once felt for all of them had turned to ash.
That night, in the dusty storage room, I logged onto an encrypted channel I'd set up years ago. A single message was waiting: "The offer stands. Do you accept?" My hands, scarred and steady, typed back, "I accept."
7.6
I was kneeling on the cold concrete of an abandoned warehouse, staring at a ticking timer while a masked man held a knife to my throat. My fiancé's nephew, Preston, finally burst through the door, but he wasn't alone. He was clutching my stepsister, Felicia, both of them looking frantic.
The kidnapper gave Preston a brutal choice: the bomb was rigged to the door, and he could only take one woman with him. The other would stay behind to burn.
Without a single second of hesitation, Preston grabbed Felicia's hand and turned his back on me.
"I'm sorry, Annelise," he said, his voice flat and devoid of any real regret.
He slammed the heavy iron door shut, leaving me to scream in the darkness as the flames began to roar. He didn't just leave me to die; he did it to protect his inheritance, treating me like a piece of trash that was finally being cleared from his path.
Later, in the hospital, he didn't even offer an apology. Instead, he raised his hand to strike me, threatening to finish what the fire started if I dared to speak a word about his cowardice. His stepsister laughed, trying to pour scalding coffee on my face while calling me a pathetic loser who should have stayed in the warehouse.
I sat there, cowering and shaking like a broken girl, letting them believe they had won. I watched their cruelty with wide, watery eyes, wondering how they could be so blind to the monster they were provoking.
What Preston didn't know was that the entire kidnapping was a performance I had choreographed myself, and every second of his betrayal was recorded in 4K.
Now, I've successfully moved into the manor of the real king-his uncle, Francesco Lancaster. He thinks he's rescued a wounded bird, but he's actually invited a world-class predator into his home. The game is no longer about survival; it's about total destruction.