The Billionaire's Pretend Wife (Isabella)

Lucy Cruz was in the master bedroom with her husband when Isabelle showed up at the front door. The master bedroom was on the first floor, facing the front of the house. It had a balcony on which if they stood, they would have a clear view of Isabelle at the door.

When the servant turned Isabelle away, Lucy had thought she would go away. She was determined to ignore her and even have the servants lock her out of the house. But when she threatened to tell Jacob Garcia the truth about their marriage, she froze with fear.

She wouldn't really do that, would she? If the Garcias found out that they had deceived them, there would be consequences.

"How dare she?" she muttered, pacing beside the king size bed in the room. "We rescued her from that dirty orphanage and gave her a decent upbringing. And a family she could only have ever dreamed of. How dare she threaten to reveal the truth about Naomi?"

"We promised her," Francis pointed out. "Do not forget that she did us a favour by marrying Jacob instead of Naomi. Even before Naomi claimed to be pregnant, you were always begging me to save her from getting married to an illegitimate son. Isabelle was willing to do it if we paid Ruth's medical bill. Let's just give her the money."

"What money?" Lucy demanded. "If we give her the money we have, what will we give Naomi? Don't forget that Naomi is the one who is our biological daughter!" She hurried to the bedside cabin and snapped a tissue from a box lying there. Turning away from Francis, she dabbed at her eyes and sniffed into the tissue, pretending to cry. "I don't know why you always want to defend that girl at the expense of our daughter."

Francis sighed and took a step towards her. "Isabelle is our daughter too-"

"I gave birth to only one daughter!" she snapped. "I don't work so hard so that all my money can go to some stray child we picked up off the street. After everything we have done for her, don't you think she should be happy to do this for us without asking anything?"

Knowing that pleading for Isabelle would never work with his wife, Francis changed his tactic. "Whatever happens, we cannot let the Garcias know that we duped them. They will not be happy to know that the girl we gave to their son in marriage is not our eldest daughter." He paced a little, and then regarded his wife again. "Even if Jacob is an idler, his personality will not allow him to sit by and do nothing. Also, he still has his powerful family behind him. If he decides to take revenge on us, our businesses could be ruined. Don't forget that the Garcias have far more influence than us."

Lucy crumpled up the tissue in her hand and tossed it into a nearby bin. "This is exactly why I didn't want Naomi to get married to him. He is only an illegitimate son, so even if his family is wealthy, he has nothing unless he works for it. If his family bothered to support him, that woman wouldn't be at our door right now making threats for money. If she was smart at all, she would at least try to get pregnant. Who knows, maybe the Garcias will be more generous towards their grandchild."

"Lucy," Francis said calmly, hoping to bring her attention back to the issue at hand-the Garcias' wrath.

She sighed. "Fine, you are right. I imagine he will be angry that we gave him an orphan as a wife instead of our eldest daughter." She worried her lip as she recalled the scene he had made that day when she had thrown Isabelle out of the house.

If he behaved like that because of how they had treated Isabelle, how much worse would his temper be if he found out that they had fooled him? What if he decided to take revenge on Naomi? No, she couldn't leave her daughter at the mercy of the Garcias.

Francis released a sigh of relief. "Let's end this once and for all. If Isabelle keeps coming back for the money, he might suspect something is up."

Even as Lucy agreed that paying Isabelle was important to keep her silent, she still didn't feel like giving her anything. She headed towards the balcony and stood outside, where there was a clear view of Isabelle still standing outside the door. The door was locked, and the servant was nowhere to be seen.

"You!" she yelled, instantly attracting Isabelle's attention. Glaring at her, she continued, "How dare you show up here and start demanding for money? Hasn't this family spent enough on you already? Have you no shame? How greedy can you get?"

"Just give me the money," Isabelle replied to her, not bothering to address the accusations directed towards her. Her calm voice infuriated Lucy even further, and she stormed back into the master bedroom.

"I better never see that face of hers again," she muttered angrily as she stomped her way to the closet. In the closet, she picked out some handbags, but she only selected the fake ones. She then went back to the room, opened a drawer, and shoved a bunch of bills into one of the bags.

"What are you doing?" Francis asked, giving her a perplexed look.

"Giving her what she wants," she replied and made her way back to the balcony. "Here!" she shouted, throwing one of the handbags at Isabelle. The bag caught her by surprise and hit her in the face. "Go sell that and take your money," Lucy yelled, throwing a few more handbags at her. This time, Isabelle moved back in time to avoid getting hit. Lucy then took out the money in the bag and threw it over the balcony. "There, take what I owe you. Stay away from my family from now on, do you hear?"

Francis approached from behind her, frowning. "Lucy, you didn't have to do that. Have you counted the money? Maybe "

Lucy rounded upon her husband, her eyes blazing. "I dare you to say one more word in her defence. That woman wants to humiliate your family, can't you see that? How dare you speak up for her?" Francis raised his hands to try and placate her. "I'm just saying-"

"Why don't you go and clear out our bank account and give her the money if you like? Because it appears you are concerned about her more than you are for your own daughter."

She marched past him and went back into the bedroom. He followed her, leaving Isabelle to herself to collect the money Lucy had thrown at her.

Once Lucy and Francis-and the sound of her angry grumbling-disappeared from the balcony, Isabelle bent and started collecting the money scattered around her.

She knew Lucy had intended to humiliate her, but she didn't care about that as she gathered the money. Her threat had worked.

Many minutes later, she stood with the entire bunch of money in her hands. Having counted it all, she realised that it wasn't enough to pay for the operation.

Setting the money inside her bag, she collected the handbags Lucy had thrown down to her. It didn't take long once she started inspecting them to realise that she had given her fake bags.

An inexperienced eye might mistake them for the real deal, but anyone who knew anything about designer bags would know they were fake. That meant she couldn't hope to sell them at stores that bought second-hand luxury bags. In short, the bags added nothing to the money Lucy gave her.

Isabelle was tempted to knock on the door again, but she knew that Lucy wouldn't give her anything more-if she even showed up. She was also certain nobody would answer the door this time round.

In the end, she had no option but to leave with the little money Lucy had given her. Given the way Lucy had treated her this time, she felt like it was futile to hope that her adoptive parents would ever give her all the money they owed her.