Billionaire's Villainous Wife

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A billionaire knelt on my bedroom floor, and I had my heel on his shoulder.

Black suit. Top three buttons undone. A man who could buy small countries, down on the carpet because I'd told him to be.

Wire me two hundred million, I said. Then we'll talk about you getting up.

[when does the villainess get written off?? she's about to drag the sweet second male lead through the mud]

[lol he's just the warm-up act. everything he's learning now is so he can serve the REAL heroine later]

[god this drama-queen side character is exhausting. how does she even deserve this? i'm here for the day she gets the divorce papers, loses it, and gets shipped off to a psych ward]

[she doesn't even know her family's company is twenty million in the hole and about to go under lmaooo]

The comments scrolled past the way they always did. Only I could see them. A whole stadium of strangers reading my life like a book, every one of them rooting for me to lose.

Chapter 1

I let them slide right by.

Killian Shen grunted and looked up at me.

Heavy-lidded eyes, the outer corners tipped up, always halfway to a smile.

"Was that me remembering something," he said, lifting a brow, "or you getting greedy? You had me put on a suit in the middle of the night. We both know what that usually means."

I'd unbuttoned him down to the third button myself. From this angle, looking down at him, the view was a lot. The open shirt. The line of his throat. All of it right there, because I was the one who'd undone the buttons.

My mouth went dry.

Don't look. Do not look.

I dragged my eyes back up and got back to threatening him.

"I don't care," I said. "Are you wiring it or not? Because if you're not, I'll go ask Colton."

His face shut like a door. "You're not going near him."

It worked. It always worked. I should have felt good about it. I didn't.

For years I'd thought Killian had a soft spot for his little brother the size of a crater.

Kid skips class? Killian covers for him. Kid skips out on his own wedding? Killian marries the bride instead.

That was me. The bride.

I'd figured he married me so I wouldn't make his precious brother pay for ditching me at the altar. So after the wedding, he gave me everything. Bought me gold and houses through gritted teeth. Wore the chest chains and shirt studs I picked out, ears going red.

I thought I had him under my heel for life.

Then the comments set me straight.

Everything Killian did, he did for the woman his brother was supposed to marry.

He was the devoted second lead. The one who'd quietly loved the sweet, perfect heroine for years. He'd married me to clear the road for her. Put up with me so I wouldn't bother them and make his girl cry.

And it got worse.

Somewhere down the line, she'd look back and finally see everything he'd given up. And Killian would divorce me without blinking.

And me. The villainess. I'd refuse to sign, because I couldn't stand to lose the life. I'd pick fights with the heroine. And he'd have me committed.

You absolute snake, Killian Shen.

We'd known each other more than twenty years, and he'd pull something this cold.

I threw my phone at his chest.

"Then wire me the money already," I snapped. "Or I'll go bug Colt every single day untilmph"

He clamped a hand over my mouth and pulled me in, dropping his chin to my shoulder, rubbing it there.

"I never said I wouldn't." His voice was warm against my neck. "Two hundred million, and that's what you want to fight about?"

I blinked. "You're saying yes?"

He laughed, low, and lifted his head. Took my face in both hands.

"With the Xu heiress? Have I ever once been allowed to say no?"

"Just one thing." His tone turned. "Fair's fair. Shouldn't you say yes to a request of mine, too?"

Chapter 2

I knew it wouldn't be that simple.

Any other day, I'd never let him bargain with me. But those comments were still crawling around in my head, and somehow I caved.

"Let's hear it."

He pressed his lips together. When he spoke, it was careful. Almost asking permission.

"From today on. Could you think about Colton less. Mention him less. See him less."

"Whatever he did to you, I'll make up for it. You've both got new lives now. Let's just leave each other alone. Okay?"

Leave them alone. While he sat there ready to play the other man, waiting on his shot at the heroine.

Real devoted-second-lead behavior.

I wanted to slap him.

Whatever. Two hundred million.

I pressed my lips together and muttered, "Fine."

He missed the look on my face. He smiled and pinched my cheek. "Good girl."

The room went quiet after that.

He was close. His thumb slid from my cheek to my mouth and rubbed, slow. His voice dropped to gravel.

"So. Should we keep going?"

There was a hook in that voice. My eyes dropped to his throat, to the way it moved when he swallowed. I almost leaned in and bit down right there.

[does she seriously not know he HATES it when she bites his throat? goes red in the face every single time]

[she stands in the bathroom every morning glaring at the mark, fuming, completely stuck on it]

[ok he doesn't actually hate it. the heroine bit him once and he had it tattooed the next day]

I lost the mood, just like that.

I pulled my stripped-off robe back on and pushed him away. "Forget it. I'm not feeling it anymore."

The second I said it, the comments changed color.

[wait WHAT. why'd she flip like that]

[that's IT? where's my scene?? i did not clear my whole night for a fade to black]

[what are you even tired for, you don't do any of the work]

[girl PLEASE just eat. i am begging you. you starving yourself starves US]

These comments couldn't keep their story straight for two seconds.

I ignored them. Ignored the part of Killian that was still very much awake, too, and burrowed into the blankets on my own.

A few minutes later, with the water running in the bathroom, I thought about that so-called ending of mine.

Bankrupt. Committed.

Not happening. I would not let that happen.

* * *

I woke up to breakfast already made.

Warm milk at my place. Killian at the counter, cutting my steak for me. Every motion smooth, expensive.

Usually the view made my morning. Today it stung.

I'd spent the whole night in nightmares. One minute Killian was throwing divorce papers in my face. The next he had Daisy Zhou by the hand, watching cold-eyed while they folded me into the back of a cop car.

I must have been staring holes in him, because he caught it fast.

"You're up." He stood and pulled out my chair. "Come eat."

"Right. I had the money moved to your account. Check it when you get a chance. I sent extra. Order whatever you want."

I stopped mid-step. I'd meant to walk straight past him.

I pulled out my phone instead.

Two hundred fifty-two million, just landed.

A whole night of being furious at him melted right off. Suddenly I had an appetite. Killian even looked easier on the eyes. The compliment slipped out before I could stop it. "You look good today, husband. That shirt really suits you."

He froze. Turned his head and coughed into his fist. "What's gotten into you this early."

Chapter 3

What was that supposed to mean?

Not that I cared. I glanced down and checked the balance one more time. My mood was excellent.

And then, a second later, the comments wrecked it.

[aw, the devoted second lead burned two hundred million for the heroine. what a man]

[uh. pretty sure that money landed in the VILLAINESS's pocket?]

[still for the heroine though! the purest love is wanting her happy no matter the cost, even when she's not by your side, i'm CRYING]

[why are the villainess's eyes darting around like that. she's not about to start something this early is she. i genuinely can't watch him wait on her like a dog. can she just take the money and stop torturing him]

Stop? Out of the question.

I picked up the milk, took a small sip, and started bossing Killian around. "Feed me."

A second later, the comments changed color.

[HAHAHA the person above asked for a scene and GOT one]

[told you she wouldn't change!! went vegetarian last night, back on the menu by morning hahaha]

[girl. last night it was "i'm tired, i'm not feeling it," and now you want breakfast-table "play"??]

Oh my god. I was innocent. What did these people take me for?

I meant feed me. As in food.

FOOD.

[last week, same table, same line. he actually went to feed her breakfast, then she goes "not that kind of feed," and the two of them forgot what planet they were on]

[adding on: not just the table. the island counter too. ended up in the shower]

[also Killian's wearing the exact same shirt from last week. that's the villainess's brand]

I looked at Killian.

He was frowning a little, loosening his tie.

"Don't take it off!"

It came out on reflex. The second it did, I knew I'd said it before.

Sure enough, his hands paused. Then he went at the buttons faster.

I shut my mouth and decided to leave the scene of the crime.

I'd made it exactly one step when my nightgown snagged on the chair and the strap slid down. A lot more than I meant to show.

Before I caught up to what was happening, I was sitting on the island counter, his warm hands cradling the back of my neck, tipping my head up.

His voice came down rough over the top of my head.

"In that much of a hurry?"

"I'm not"

"Tsk." His thumb hooked under my chin. He brushed a kiss across my mouth, light. "You're hopeless."

Then he kissed me again, and there was nothing light about this one. Slow at first, then not slow at all, his hand sliding into my hair to hold me right where he wanted me. Mint. The counter cold against the backs of my thighs.

Whatever I'd been about to say dissolved somewhere in the middle of it.

The comments flickered once and cut out, like someone upstairs had pulled the plug.

* * *

A while later I lay boneless against the sheets, his arm heavy across my waist.

His hand started to wander.

I caught it before it got anywhere. "No more."

A soft kiss traveled up the back of my neck and stopped at my ear.

His voice was low, half-satisfied. "I'm flying out this afternoon. Back in a week."

What?

Chapter 4

He nipped lightly at my earlobe and asked, polite as you please, "You don't want to draw against the account first?"

I didn't get it. When did the whole world decide I was some kind of animal who couldn't keep her hands off him?

The comments thought so. Killian thought so.

I shot him a weak glare. "I'm not that desperate."

"No?" He raised a brow. "Then who was sneaking around watching things she shouldn't while I was gone?"

I flipped over fast. "How do you know that?!"

Okay. Here's what actually happened last week.

Killian was gone seven days straight. I couldn't sleep, I was bored out of my mind, so I texted my best friend Nora to bug her. She was too busy being worked to death by the company to deal with me, so she just sent me something. Kitchen-themed.

And then I spent all night dreaming about Killian in a black shirt and a silver sleeve garter.

Naturally. Naturally, the man who was supposed to be away turned up at the breakfast table the next morning.

Who could survive that?

But how did he even know what I'd been watching?

"Did you go through my phone?"

He looked like innocence itself. "You were out like a light. I'm the one who turned the casting off for you."

I'd thought the screen had timed out on its own. Turns out he'd caught me days ago.

No wonder he had me pegged as desperate.

My ears went hot for no reason. I muttered, "Whose fault is it for coming home in the middle of the night."

He'd told me he wouldn't be back till the next day. He never took a red-eye unless something was on fire.

He knew exactly what I was thinking. He kissed my mouth, all tease. "Someone called to report that my wife missed me. You don't think that counts as an emergency?"

A red-eye he hated. In the dead of night. All because one friend of mine made a single phone call.

Was that part of "putting up with me," too?

My head went soft and fuzzy.

What if Killian did feel something for me. A little. Otherwise, as impossible as I was to live with, how did he make it all look so easy?

A second later, the comments shot the daydream down.

[what's the villainess glowing about. she doesn't actually think he loves her, does she? he's just out of other ways to manage her, come ON. he only wants to keep her off the heroine's back]

[lol right, throwing money and himself at her the second she pouts. SO out of options]

[shippers please go far, far away. this trip is literally about the heroine. he's headed to a ribbon-cutting at her old high school]

[the heroine's about to learn it was the second lead who paid for her schooling all those years, not the rich brother. and the wheel of fate starts to turn]

[a nothing little event and he shows up in person. he knows exactly who it's for]

I knew the comments were telling the truth. Killian really was going to a ribbon-cutting.

And they were right that it was nothing. Some high school the Shen Group sponsored. A VP could have covered it. There was no reason for Killian to show up himself.

Something about it should have caught on me. A splinter I couldn't find. I let it go.

I nudged the half-dressed Killian with my foot and asked, as careless as I could fake.

"Tomorrow's the weekend. You really have to go?"

"It's that important?"

He nodded without missing a beat. "It is. Very."

That cooled me off fast. I kept clawing anyway.

"And what if I don't let you go?"

He did up his suit button, bent, and kissed my forehead.

"Be good. Don't make a scene."

"I'll remember to bring you back a present."

A present.

How about I send you a present first. The disappearing balance on your bank card.

Chapter 5

I took Killian's card to the mall and went scorched-earth.

When I got tired of shopping, I rode up to the top floor and booked the penthouse suite.

I'd barely gotten the key card when his texts started landing.

Killian: [?]

Killian: [You went out?]

Killian: [Nora's out of town for work. So who are you out playing with today?]

I didn't answer. I dropped my bags and headed for the club lounge.

I was pleasantly buzzed when a cluster of bright young college girls came in next door.

First time somewhere this nice, probably. Chattering, wide-eyed, impossible not to notice.

I cracked one eye open and looked over.

Small world.

Daisy Zhou and her roommates.

After the comments started up, I'd gotten curious about this heroine of theirs and looked her up. Senior year. Public-policy major. Just took her graduation photos.

They talked recruiting season for a minute. Then the conversation circled back to its center: Daisy.

"I'm so jealous you don't have to stress about a job. You're walking straight into the Shen Group, obviously."

"It's like a novel come to life. A billionaire fighting his own family's merger marriage for you. So romantic."

"True love wins. Daisy, you're so brave."

Daisy ducked her head, shy.

"When I found out he had a fiance, I hesitated too. We had a huge fight. I asked him if he wanted me to be the other woman. But he told me he only loves me. That there's nothing between him and her. They've never even kissed."

"He skipped his own engagement gala just to prove it to me. That's when I let myself believe him." She paused, her voice going soft and sad. "But the two families' interests run too deep. She won't call off the marriage, so we still can't go public."

One of the roommates, short hair, bristled for her. "Rich people love trading their daughters around like chips. It's honestly kind of sleazywho are you?!"

I set my glass down on their table and stood.

Gave her a small smile. "Probably... the sleazy one you were just talking about."

The short-haired girl's pupils shrank. She ducked behind Daisy.

Daisy stepped in front of her like a mother hen. "Miss Xu. That's not very polite, is it."

I looked her up and down.

So the famous gentle, kind-hearted heroine knew the cry-first-blame-first game too.

I let out a small laugh and didn't bother answering.

Maybe she was protecting her friend. Maybe just that sad little scrap of pride.

I'd turned to leave when Daisy blocked me again.

"Either way, let me apologize for my friend." She drew a breath. "I hope you'll apologize to her too."

I pulled out a card and dropped it on her. "I don't accept your apology. Anything else, talk to my lawyer."

Her head snapped up, eyes brimming.

She looked like she might shatter on the spot. And still, in this soft, pitying little voice:

"Don't you think it's sad? Holding on to a man who doesn't love you."

She paused. "Someone like you. Raised to be a bargaining chip by your own parents, who never once saw you as a"

Chapter 6

"a person. I've heard the speech." I turned back around.

I said the next part slow and clear, loud enough for every last one of them to catch it.

"Here's the one thing you've got backwards. There's no fiance he's trapped with. There's a wife." I let it land. "That's me. I signed the paperwork myself."

The short-haired girl's mouth came open and stayed there. Around the table, the gushing died. One by one they stopped looking at Daisy, like they couldn't quite remember why they'd been so sure a minute ago.

"You've been chasing a married man and selling this whole room a love story where you're the lead and I'm the thing in your way." I lifted my bag off the chair, in no hurry at all. "I'm not in your way, Daisy. I'm just the part you got wrong."

Daisy's face drained white. For once, the gentle, kind-hearted heroine didn't have a single line ready.

I walked. I didn't look back once.

I didn't get far.

A blur shot past me. Out of nowhere, Colton Shen had Daisy folded into his arms, frowning, thumbing at her cheek. He looked up, ready to start somethingand froze.

"Sloane? What are you doing here?!"

First time I'd seen Colton since the engagement party.

His father had grounded him. Shipped him off to an overseas branch for three months. He'd come back a lot less easy to look at. Couldn't hold a candle to Killian from any angle.

I was busy quietly hating my own taste in men when he caught my wrist and yanked me into a private room.

Colton planted his hands on his hips, the anger pressing up under his face.

"Sloane, getting me grounded for three months wasn't enough? Now you're going after Daisy too?"

I had nothing for that. "Who went after her?"

Was that going after her? Self-defense, at most.

Say what they wanted about me. They'd dragged my parents into it.

My mother, elegant her whole life, screaming herself hoarse at the engagement party until she fainted. My father tearing up the partnership with the Shens on the spot, swallowing the losses without a word. The two of them holding me from both sides afterward, crying, ten years older by the end of one afternoon.

If they'd heard what Daisy just said, they might've gone down all over again.

A slap would've been letting her off easy.

But I hadn't laid a finger on her. I didn't need to.

Colton pushed. "So that's your move now? Making a fool of her in front of her friends?"

I gave a cold laugh. "I told the truth. Not my fault her story falls apart the second somebody says it out loud."

His mouth shut.

Then he let out a long-suffering sigh.

"I already told you I'd settle down and get married in six months. Do you really have to keep pushing? You're only making me more scared of the whole thing."

"Who cares if you're scared. Wait." It caught up to me. "Who's marrying you?!"

"Who do you think I'm talking about?" Colton scoffed, and his voice went weirdly smug. "I'm barely back and you're already trailing after me. Sloane, you really can't stay away from m"

I cut him off with a raised hand.

"Colton. Do they not have internet overseas?"

"Or did they cut you out of the family?"

"I'm married." I gave my hand a little shake. The ring caught the light. "To your brother."

Colton went blank for three full seconds, then laughed in disbelief.

"What kind of joke is that? You don't even like my brother. Why would you marry him?"

So he genuinely didn't know.

I couldn't be bothered to explain. I headed for the door.

Fast footsteps behind me. Colton's hand clamped around my wrist and wrenched.

The room spun. His arm locked around the small of my back.

I shoved at him. "Let go of me!"

"Not until you explain!"

The words had barely left him when the door swung open from the outside.

Daisy, tear-streaked, stood shoulder to shoulder with the man who was supposed to be away on business.

Killian.

His eyes dropped straight to my waist. To the arm wrapped around it.

His voice came out colder than I had ever heard it.

"What is going on in here."

Colton and Daisy traded a look. He let go of me fast.

"Daisy, let me explain."

He said it. He didn't take a single step toward her.

Daisy sniffled, threw one last wounded look my way, and bolted, both hands over her face.

And then it was just the three of us. Colton's arm still half-lifted where it had been holding me. Killian in the doorway, not moving, not blinking, his eyes fixed on the inch of space where his brother had just had his hands on his wife.

Chapter 7

Colton's first instinct was to chase her. Then he doubled back, brow furrowed, and rounded on Killian.

"Bro. Sloane's saying she married you. What the hell is going on? Why did nobody tell me?!"

Killian didn't even look at him.

He crossed the room in a few strides, took my hand, and walked me out.

He brought me back to our room. "Don't lock it," he said. Then he was gone again.

I lay on the big bed and watched the comments roll past.

[the male lead is genuinely vile. eats what's on his plate while eyeing the pot. no wonder the second lead ends up with her]

[the second lead went after the heroine!! what's he saying to her, is he comforting her]

[lord-of-the-manor voice with everyone, then humble as anything the second he's near the heroine. unreal]

[the heroine FINALLY realizes the second lead was the one funding her all these years!!!]

[wait, hold on. why is the second lead coming back to the villainess now??]

[he's here to settle the score. lay it all out]

I'd just decided to play dead under the covers when Killian got there first and yanked them back.

His face was still as a frozen pond.

"What did you promise me?"

Called it. The comments were right. He'd come to take her side.

I pictured Daisy's blotchy, crumpling face. "So it got to you. Seeing her like that."

Killian seemed thrown that I'd just say it to his face. He blinked.

Then he gave me a flat look, let out a cold "Mm," and said, stiff as a board, "It got to me."

[the comments lost it]

[the second lead is finally facing his own heart!! the way he was all over the villainess earlier, i thought he'd been body-snatched]

[he was about to combust looking at the heroine's hurt face just now]

[he stopped even looking into what happened. handed her a number to reach him, told her she can come to him for anything now, i am DECEASED]

The comments turned my blood colder by the line.

I let out a cold laugh and said the exact opposite of what I felt. "Who you feel sorry for is none of my damn business."

Killian's face went a shade darker on the spot.

I didn't want to talk to Mr. Grumpy anymore. I grabbed my bag to go.

I'd barely reached the door when his hand closed hard around my wrist.

"Where do you think you're going?" He sounded like he'd hit the end of his rope. "Do you really have to keep going after him?"

He didn't ask one question about what actually happened. Didn't look into a single thing. Just decided I was the one who'd gone after her.

No wonder he loses it down the line. Locks me in a psych ward.

What a complete ass.

I hit my limit.

"Yes!"

"Yes, I just HAD to go bother her, okay?!"

If he was that worried about her happiness, he could go make her happy himself. What was he losing his mind at me for?

Killian was going to end up with the heroine anyway. Why sit around waiting for it. I'd kick him to the curb first.

I threw his hand off and got ahead of him. "Divorce."

His hand froze midair.

Scared he'd say yes too fast, I jumped in again.

"Just so we're clear, I'm not giving back the two hundred million."

"And we split the marital assets like normal, or I will make your life hell."

"I'm not somebody you get to push around."

I had every right to be angry. I was.

And somewhere in the middle of saying it, it cracked into something small and miserable.

I looked at Killian, and refused to admit I'd already fallen for him.

Chapter 8

I've always run cold on this kind of thing.

Getting engaged to Colton was like signing a contract. Holding his hand was like ticking a box on a list.

When Colton ran off with someone else, my first thought was that I'd lose face. My second was that I'd lose money. Past that, I genuinely didn't care.

Killian was different.

He coaxes me, and I'm happy. He's close to me, and I feel full, settled. He turns me down, and something in me drops. He gets me wrong, and it aches.

I stopped being myself.

At the start, when he came back from overseas and said he'd marry me in his brother's place, I said yes because I was looking at that ridiculous face and that body, and my brain short-circuited.

I just wanted him. That, and keeping the two families' deal alive.

It was those three months of his flawless act that wore me down, piece by piece.

Who told him to be that good to me when he didn't even want me?!

I couldn't hold it in. "Killian, in this marriage, I'm the victim here."

[honestly? the villainess has a point. she hasn't done one bad thing]

[the man literally proposed to HER...]

[she was born to be the heroine's contrast. every piece of the heroine's happiness gets stripped off the villainess one at a time. she's basically the one getting bullied]

[ok the author went soft though. villainess didn't go bankrupt, she's the one who filed, she gets to lie on a pile of money and date eighteen boy-toys after this...]

[shame we don't get to watch these two end up hating each other for real...]

For once, even the comments were on my side.

The more I thought about it, the more it stung, until I was crying and hitting him.

Killian didn't move. He let me beat my fists against his chest.

I don't know how long it took before I wore out and stopped.

His face had gone pale.

"What you said just now. Is that what you've thought this whole time?"

I wiped my eyes. "Obviously."

His mouth opened. The words came out rough. "Got it."

I thought Killian and I had reached an understanding about the divorce.

We slept in separate rooms for the next few days.

But a week passed, and the papers never came.

So I drew them up myself and carried them to his study in person.

When I pushed the door open, Killian sat locked onto his screen, dead still.

His eyes were red. Swollen. A man who never let so much as a cufflink sit crooked, and he looked like he hadn't slept in days.

The second he saw me, he slammed the laptop shut. Too fast.

"Did you need something?"

Seriously. Hiding it from me like I was a thief.

I set the divorce papers on his desk, cold.

"Take a look. Sign it if it's fine. The sooner we're done, the better."

I turned and walked out before he could get a word in.

I didn't look back. If I saw that face one more time, I wasn't sure I'd still be able to leave.

That night I had a nightmare