Carrying The Sterile Billionaires Miracle Heir

On the day I was supposed to marry Preston Kensington, his adopted sister threatened to throw herself off the penthouse balcony.

For her, Preston abandoned me at the altar, walking out without a backward glance while I stood there suffocating in layers of couture silk and tulle. Facing a ballroom full of Manhattans elite, their eyes glittering with pity and mockery, I walked straight to the microphone.

"Whoever steps up to this altar right now," I announced, my voice echoing through the vaulted ceiling, "is the man I will marry today."

Three years later, Preston returned to the Kensington estate, his adopted sister in tow.

I was reclining on the cream leather sofa, sipping an expensive prenatal health tonic and idly watching a series on the flatscreen.

Prestons eyes locked onto the undeniable swell of my pregnant belly. His jaw tightened, a muscle feathering dangerously in his cheek. "Whose bastard is that?"

I took a slow, deliberate sip from my crystal glass, offering a faint smile. "A Kensingtons, of course."

...

Preston stormed across the Persian rug, his face twisted in rage, and hauled me up by the arm.

"You lying bitch! The day of the wedding, I took Paige and left. I haven't been back in three years. How the hell could you be pregnant with my child?"

A sharp laugh escaped my lips. I never said it was his. He wasnt the only man in the Kensington dynasty.

"Of course it's not your child. You aren't fit to be a father to my baby."

Paige gasped, pressing a hand to her chest in a practiced display of shock. "Blair! Even though Preston walked away from the wedding, he still let you keep the Kensington name. He let you live here in luxury. How could you be so shameless as to get knocked up with some stray's baby?"

My gaze snapped to her, cold and unyielding. "Youre his adopted sister, Paige. Yet you openly seduced your own brother. If were talking about being shameless, who could possibly compete with you two?"

Instantly, Paiges eyes welled with tears. She turned to Preston, her voice trembling. "Preston, weve been struggling out there for three years, keeping our boundaries, doing the right thing. And she she gets pregnant with a bastard and makes a complete fool out of you."

The implication of being cuckolded hit Prestons fragile ego like a match to gasoline. He raised his hand and struck me across the face with sickening force.

"You whore! You get yourself knocked up and then try to throw dirt on me and Paige? Get the hell out of my house!"

Pain exploded across my cheek, my vision spotting black for a few terrifying seconds.

Three years ago, when Preston eloped with Paige, he left me to bear the humiliation of New York's high society alone. Driven by pure adrenaline and rage, I had demanded a husband from the crowd.

It was Prestons uncle, Victor Kensington, who had stepped up to the altar.

Victor was known as the grim reaper of Wall Streeta man whose cold, ruthless efficiency made billionaires tremble. Since the day I became his wife, doors that were previously locked flew open, and everyone who met me bent over backward to offer me their absolute best.

When I finally got pregnant, Victor treated me like spun glass. He wouldn't let a single hair on my head be harmed.

For Preston to lay a hand on me today if Victor found out, there would be blood.

Partly to prevent an absolute bloodbath in the family, and partly to protect the fragile life growing inside me, I steadied my breathing. "If you both walk out that door right now, I will pretend this never happened."

Instead of taking the lifeline, Paige lunged forward, her fingers twisting violently into my hair.

"Shes just guilty, Preston!" Paige shrieked. "She wants to kick us out so she can use this bastard to steal the Kensington fortune!"

"So thats your game," Preston sneered, his eyes dark with malice. "I won't let you get away with it."

I writhed, trying to break free from Paiges grip, my hands instinctively guarding my stomach. "The day you ran away, Arthur officially struck you from the trust! Everything in this family has absolutely nothing to do with you anymore!"

Paige let out a mocking laugh. "Grandpa was just angry. Preston is his only grandson. He would never actually cut him off."

Preston puffed up his chest, a sickeningly smug look on his face. "Grandpa told me long ago that the Kensington empire is mine."

I cradled my belly, my voice dropping to a deadly whisper. "Not anymore. The child Im carrying is the new Kensington heir."

I thought I had made it abundantly clear.

But Prestons face contorted into something monstrous. "You really are trying to pass off some mutt as a Kensington. Im going to teach you a lesson youll never forget."

He swung his hand again, a brutal backhand that sent me crashing to the hardwood floor.

Panic surged through my veins. Looking at their deranged, feral expressions, a primal terror gripped me. They were going to hurt the baby. "Hes not a bastard!" I cried out, scrambling backward. "He is"

Before I could finish, Preston lunged down. He grabbed the shattered remains of my crystal glass, still coated in the thick prenatal tonic, and shoved it brutally against my mouth.

"Paige and I have been living out of suitcases, starving on the streets for three years, while you sit here living like a queen off a bastard!" he roared. "You like drinking this trash so much? Drink it!"

The jagged edge of the crystal tore into my lip and gums. The metallic taste of my own blood mixed with the thick liquid. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't speak. I raised my hands to fight him off, but Paiges stiletto heel slammed down onto the back of my hand, pinning it to the floor.

Agony shot up my arm. My body convulsed, but the scream remained trapped in my bleeding throat.

After forcing the mess into my mouth, Preston spat on me and stood up, dusting off his hands like he had just taken out the trash.

Then, Paige shifted her weight. Her thin stiletto heel moved directly over my swollen stomach.

Pure, paralyzing horror washed over me. I ignored the blinding pain in my hand, grabbing her ankle with both of my bloody hands, desperately trying to hold her foot back.

Victor was supposed to be completely sterile. This baby was a miracle, the result of three grueling years of specialists, IVF treatments, and quiet, heartbreaking disappointments.

Paige looked down at me, a sadistic smile playing on her lips. "Look at you, Blair. You look like a pathetic bitch trying to protect her litter. Its disgusting."

Preston stared at my stomach, his brow furrowing in disgust. "If word gets out that Ive been cuckolded, Ill be a laughingstock in the city. Squash that bastard, Paige."

I shook my head frantically, coughing up the thick liquid and blood. "My baby..." I gasped, my voice a broken rasp. "He is... Victor's..."

Preston froze. For a second, there was silence. Then, he threw his head back and let out a manic, booming laugh.

"You really are a terrible liar! Everyone in New York knows my uncle is practically asexual. Hes sterile, Blair!" Preston sneered. "I am the only bloodline this family has. Why else do you think Grandpa practically forced me to marry you? To breed."

"Preston is the sole heir," Paige chimed in, stepping harder on my hand. "Grandpa only froze his cards to force him to come home. Its actually hilarious that youd try to pin your mistake on Uncle Victor just to save your own skin."

They had been gone for three years. They hadn't made a single phone call home. Arthur had been so profoundly disappointed in his grandson that he truly had cut him off.

But looking at their dilated pupils and manic energy, I realized they were completely unhinged. Arguing with them would only get my baby killed.

"I'm not lying," I pleaded, tears cutting through the blood on my cheeks. "This is Victor's child. If you don't believe me, let me call him. Let me prove it."

Keeping one arm wrapped protectively over my stomach, I reached out for my phone on the coffee table.

If I could just dial his number. Victor would move heaven and earth to get here. He would save us.

My fingertips brushed the cold metal of the phone, but Preston snatched it away. With a violent flick of his wrist, he hurled it against the marble fireplace. It shattered into a dozen pieces.

My heart plummeted into my stomach.

Preston grabbed my chin, his fingers digging painfully into my jaw. "My uncle is a psycho. Hes the most ruthless man on Wall Street. If he finds out I can't even handle a cheating wife on my own, he'll think I'm weak. Hell never hand the company over to me." His eyes narrowed. "Thats why you wanted to call him, isn't it?"

"No," I sobbed, shaking my head. "Please"

Before I could form another word, Paige pressed the tip of her stiletto into the curve of my belly. "Stop wasting time with this slut, Preston. Lets get rid of the problem so we can go see Grandpa and claim what's ours."

A sharp, agonizing cramp ripped through my abdomen. Inside, I felt the baby thrash frantically. A wave of maternal panic, darker and deeper than anything I had ever known, drowned out my pride.

"Please," I begged, looking up at them. "Please don't hurt my baby..."

Paige pulled out her phone and pointed the camera at me. "Get on your knees. Bark like a dog twice, and tell the camera you're nothing but a cheap whore. Do it, and I'll step off."

For my child, there was no line I wouldn't cross. I dragged my battered body up, forcing myself onto my hands and knees on the glass-strewn floor.

"Woof. Woof," I choked out, my body trembling violently. "I'm... I'm a cheap whore."

Paige leaned down, a triumphant, wicked smirk on her face.

"Remember when I was on my knees begging you not to marry Preston, Blair? Did you ever think you'd end up like this?"

Years ago, Paige had come to my apartment, crying that she and her brother were in love, begging me to call off the wedding. But the Covington and Kensington merger involved billions in corporate assets. If I broke the engagement, my family would bear the financial ruin. I had refused her.

She had carried that venom in her heart every single day since.

I didn't care about the past anymore. I looked up at them, my vision swimming. "Please... call an ambulance."

Instead of mercy, Preston drove his expensive loafer directly into the center of my back. "God, you are pathetic! You'll do anything for this bastard, won't you?"

I slammed face-first into the hardwood. The impact sent a shockwave of fiery, agonizing pain radiating across my belly.

"You said... you said you'd let him go..." I gasped, clutching the floor.

Paige examined her nails, utterly bored. "I said I would let him go. Preston never promised anything."

"You used my name to live off my family," Preston snarled. "You think I'm going to let you walk away from that?"

He drew his leg back and delivered a brutal, sickening kick directly to my lower abdomen.

A horrific tearing sensation ripped through me. A second later, a warm gush of dark, red blood soaked through my dress, pooling onto the floor between my legs.

The frantic fluttering inside me slowed... and then stopped.

A profound, suffocating emptiness eclipsed my soul. The despair was so heavy it felt like a physical weight crushing my lungs. I turned my head to look at them, my vision burning with a hatred so pure and absolute it felt divine.

"Preston. Paige." My voice was a hollow rasp, emptied of all humanity. "You are going to burn for this."

Paige stepped closer to Preston, her eyes flashing with malice. "She still isn't sorry. I guess she hasn't learned her lesson."

Preston smileda cold, dead thing. "Let's see who burns first. Paige, get a rope."

Paige hurried into the foyer, returning moments later with heavy decorative curtain tie-backs.

I tried to drag my bleeding, broken body backward, leaving a thick smear of crimson across the pristine wood. "What are you doing?" I choked out, terror flooding me anew.

They didn't answer. They were smiling.

They bound my wrists and ankles together. Then, Preston grabbed the rope and dragged me out through the French doors, hauling me across the stone patio toward the infinity pool.

With one swift kick, he sent me tumbling over the edge.

The icy water swallowed me instantly. Bound and heavy with pregnancy, I sank like a stone. The water rushed into my nose and lungs, sealing my screams. The burning agony of suffocation overtook the pain in my body. Just as my consciousness began to splinter into darkness

Preston yanked the rope, hauling my head above the surface.

"Have you learned your lesson, Blair?" he shouted from the edge. "Are you ever going to embarrass me again?"

I gasped greedily at the air, coughing up water, but as I breathed, I felt a terrifying downward pressure in my pelvis.

Victor and I had taken the birthing classes. I knew what this was. The trauma had triggered early labor.

Even though I knew the chances were nonexistent, the primal instinct to save my child took over.

"I'm sorry!" I sobbed out, treading water frantically. "I won't do it again. Please. The baby is coming. Call an ambulance, I'm begging you!"

Preston spat down at me. "Still thinking about the bastard? You haven't repented at all."

"I am not letting that mistake walk out of my house alive!"

He raised his foot to kick my head back under the water.

I closed my eyes tightly, surrendering to the cold, dark end.

Then, the massive iron gates of the estate blew open.

Victor sprinted across the lawn, his eyes wild, his voice an earth-shattering roar. "GET YOUR HANDS OFF HER!"