A Billionaire Heiress From The Ashes

My husband, Deegan, plunged a needle into my heavily pregnant belly. He said it was a mild sedative to "slow things down." The truth was a brutal betrayal.

His brother's widow, Karmen, was also due, and her son had to be born first to secure the family inheritance. He was sacrificing our child for money.

He locked me in a panic room, leaving me to suffer through agonizing contractions alone.

His sister found me, not to help, but to kick me and let her venomous snake sink its fangs into my arm.

As I lay bleeding out, my baby dying inside me, he had all the life-saving medical equipment moved to Karmen's private clinic, leaving me with nothing.

He called me a manipulative actress, a gold-digger trying to steal the inheritance. The man who swore to protect me left me to die on a cold floor, choosing a birthright over his own child.

But I didn't die. My billionaire father saved me, and I was reborn from the ashes of my grief. Years later, when Deegan stormed into my boardroom, convinced he could drag his "dead" wife home, I looked at the pathetic man he'd become. I slowly pulled the wedding ring from my finger and let it fall to the floor.

"The woman who loved you died that night."

Chapter 1

Jada Norman POV:

I watched Deegan Manning, the man I loved, plunge a needle into my heavily pregnant belly, the precise, practiced motion of a surgeon, not a husband. My breath caught, a hot, acrid taste in my throat. The room smelled of antiseptics and betrayal.

My body felt like a heavy, waterlogged boat, drifting. Every muscle ached with the effort of simply existing. My baby was due any day now, a tiny, insistent presence that had filled me with such overwhelming joy just hours ago. Now, a cold dread was settling deep in my bones.

This wasn't a hospital, not really. It was one of Deegan's private panic rooms, upgraded with high-tech medical equipment. White walls, sterile light, and silence. A silence that pressed in on me, making my ears ring.

"What are you doing, Deegan?" I whispered, my voice rough, barely audible even to myself. My heart hammered against my ribs, a frantic bird trapped in a cage.

He didn't look at me, his handsome face a mask of focus. His fingers, usually so gentle when they touched my swollen belly, were now firm, unyielding. He pushed the plunger down. I felt a cold burn spread from the injection site, searing through my veins. It wasn't pain, not yet, but a creeping numbness that was far more terrifying.

"It's a mild sedative," he said, his voice clipped, devoid of the warmth I had once believed was meant only for me. "To slow things down."

My eyes widened. "Slow things down? Deegan, I'm already having contractions. They've been coming for hours. We need to get to the hospital."

He finally met my gaze, and a shiver ran