My Husband Is The Rival

Today was supposed to be the pinnacle of my lifemy engagement gala to Alex Cross.

Instead, it became the day he walked into the ballroom with Lucy, the miracle biological daughter the Hart family had finally brought home, clutching a marriage certificate. They hadnt just skipped the engagement; they had already tied the knot.

Alex looked at me, his gaze stripped of the warmth I had relied on for five years. Now, there was only a cold, sharp disdain.

"You didn't actually think I was going to marry you, did you, Isabel?" he asked, his voice echoing through the silent hall.

Lucy clung to his arm, a triumphant smirk playing on her lips. "I told Alex to play along for a bit," she said, her voice dripping with mock sympathy. "I thought you needed a reality check, but I didn't realize you were actually delusional enough to believe the act."

Even my parentsthe people who had raised me, who had called me their daughter for twenty yearsstood firmly behind them. To them, this was simply cosmic justice.

"You had twenty years of a life that belonged to Lucy," my mother said, her eyes hard. "So what if you dated Alex for five years? You were just keeping his seat warm."

It was only then that the fog lifted. Alex and Lucy hadn't just met; they had been orchestrating this for months. This gala, the dress I was wearing, the months of planningit was all a curated performance designed for my public humiliation.

The whispers from the crowd began to rise like a tide. The charity case finally got kicked out. Did she really think she could keep the Hart inheritance and the Cross fortune?

I didn't argue. I didn't scream. I simply stood there, absorbing the jagged edges of their mockery. And then, I smiled.

"I hope," I said, my voice steady enough to make Alex flinch, "that after today, none of you find a reason to regret this."

Alex let out a short, sharp laugh, clearly mistaking my composure for bitterness.

"Don't blame me, Isabel. Blame yourself. You were always too busy with your lab work, your research, your 'career.' I'm a man with needs, and you were never there." He stepped closer, dropping his voice. "Lucy actually knows how to be a wife. She fits my world better than a woman who smells like formaldehyde."

He reached out and pressed a set of keys into my palm. My skin crawled at his touch. "The penthouse in the Upper West Side. Consider it your severance package."

I looked down at the silver keys. It was pathetic.

"Alex," I said, my voice carrying just enough to be heard by those closest to us. "Before you try to set me up as your kept woman, you should have asked yourself a simple question: Do I look like the type of woman who wants a man whos already been handled by someone else?"

The color drained from his face. He hadn't expected me to call out his sordid little plan so bluntly.

Before he could respond, his best man, Mark, stepped in with a sneer. "Give it a rest, Isabel. Youre lucky hes giving you anything at all now that the Harts have officially disowned you. Its a house, not an insult. Stop acting like a martyr; it doesn't suit you."

I looked at Alex. He didn't say a word. He just let them tear into me.

A ghost of a memory flickeredthe Alex who once drove six hours through a snowstorm just because I mentioned I missed a specific bakery's sourdough. The Alex who, when I was volunteering as a medic in a conflict zone and we lost comms for a month, nearly lost his mind trying to charter a private plane into a no-fly zone just to find me.

It was on that blood-stained soil, where tomorrow was never a guarantee, that I had promised to marry him.

But the man standing in this ballroom wasn't that man. That man was dead.

"Isabel, don't be like that," Lucy purred, stepping forward. "I was just playing a little joke with Alex. I didn't know hed actually go through with the 'fake' engagement just to show me he was serious about us. Its sweet, really. Im sorry if it hurt your feelings."

She held out a glass of champagne, her eyes glinting. When I didn't take it, she grabbed my hand, trying to force the stem into my grip.

The glass shattered.

Shards flew, one grazing Lucys leg. She let out a theatrical gasp of pain.

Alex didn't hesitate. He shoved me aside so hard I hit the edge of a table, his entire focus shifting to the tiny bead of red on Lucys skin.

"Isabel! If you have a problem, take it out on me!" he roared. "Lucy was just trying to be nice. Can't you be the bigger person for once?"

A sharp, physical ache bloomed in my chest. "The bigger person?"

"Alex, of all the people in this room, you are the last person who should be lecturing me on grace."

His friends circled like vultures, their voices thick with derision. "If you hadn't spent your life nagging him about his diet or his drinking, maybe he wouldn't have gone looking for someone who actually has a heart. You brought this on yourself. Why don't you get on your knees? Maybe Alex will feel sorry enough to give you a job at one of his firms."

The room erupted in laughter.

Everyone knew I had changed after returning from the field a year ago. I had tried to soften my edges, tried to fit into Alexs social circle, even moved in with him despite the Hart familys "traditional" rules. They all thought it was because I was desperate to hold onto him.

They thought they had me trapped in their little trap. They thought I would break.

I reached up, unslid the three-carat diamond ring from my finger, and let it fall. It didn't bounce. it just sat there on the polished floor, looking like a piece of junk.

"Happy New Life, Alex," I said. "Were done."

The air seemed to leave his lungs. He froze, his expression turning ugly as he stared at the ring. "Youre just doing this to get a reaction. Youre mad because I played you at the gala, so youre acting like you don't care."

I looked him dead in the eye. "Whether I care or not... you'll find out soon enough."

I turned my back on them and walked out of the hall. The moment the heavy oak doors closed behind me, I pulled out my phone.

"Stop the medication shipments to the Cross estate," I said to the person on the other end. "And the research partnership with Hart Pharmaceuticals? Kill it. Im done collaborating with them. Permanently."

Leaving the Hart family meant resigning my position at Hart Memorial Hospital.

Three days later, as I was finishing my exit paperwork and carrying a box of my personal belongings toward the elevator, I ran into Lucy. She was there for a "check-up," looking every bit the pampered heiress.

She leaned against the wall, watching me with a smug smile. "Isabel, remember three years ago? When you made sure my reputation was trashed in med school? When you made sure no residency program would take me? Did you ever think you'd end up like this?"

"I can't be a doctor, but so what? I can still get you fired from your own family's hospital."

I looked at her, seeing the smallness beneath the designer coat.

Three years ago, we were both grad students under the same mentor. She had been desperate for a shortcut, secretly buying substandard reagents to pad her research results. It resulted in an entire batch of experimental drugs being compromised.

She tried to pin the blame on me since we shared the lab shift. But the digital trail of her purchases cleared my name. She was blacklisted from the research community for wasting a year of the institutes funding. And she had hated me every second since.

"I didn't realize your man was so easy to catch," she continued, moving closer so she could whisper in my ear. "A few 'accidental' run-ins, a little vulnerability, and he thought it was fate. He used to complain about how boring you were, always stuck in the lab. He said you didn't know how to... give him what he really needed."

She pulled aside her silk scarf, revealing a cluster of faint bruises on her neck. Her eyes were a challenge.

"I asked Alex how many kids he wanted. Want to guess what he said?" She leaned in. "He said as many as possible. Because hes going to love our children more than anything in this world."

She waited for the tears. She waited for me to collapse. Instead, I let out a dry, hollow laugh.

"Is that so? Well, I wish you both a very busy nursery. May you be locked together forever."

Lucys face contorted with rage. She raised her hand to strike me.

I moved to block her, but someone grabbed me from behind, yanking me backward so violently my neck snapped. A stinging slap landed across my face, nearly knocking me off my feet.

My motheror the woman I used to call motherstared at me with pure venom.

"Isabel, stay the hell away from my daughter. If you breathe near her again, I will make sure the Hart family ruins what's left of your miserable life!"

I touched my burning cheek. The irony was a physical weight in my lungs.

Six months ago, this woman was dying of liver failure. There were no compatible donors on the registry. I was the one who went under the knife. I gave her a portion of my own liver to keep her alive. I nearly died on that table from a massive hemorrhage.

When she woke up, she held my hand and called me her "angel." She promised that even if they found Lucy, I would always be her daughter.

How quickly the "angel" became the "trash."

"Ive already had you scrubbed from the family trust," she spat. "You have no connection to the Harts anymore. I won't let you hurt my daughter or my grandchild!"

I froze. "Grandchild?"

Lucy smoothed her dress over her stomach. "Didn't you know, 'Sister'? Im three months pregnant."

Alex was standing by the clinic doors, his expression unreadable. So that was it. That was the resolve that led to the secret marriage.

"Congratulations, Mr. Cross," I said, my voice cold.

My mother raised her hand again. "You still have the nerve to flirt with him in front of us? Do you think were blind?"

This time, I didn't let her hit me. I caught her wrist in a vice grip, squeezing until she let out a sharp cry of pain.

Lucy scurried into Alexs arms. "Alex, is she doing this because I took over the new drug research project? Isabel, if that's what this is about, just take the project! Just don't hurt Mom!"

Her eyes, however, were dancing with malice.

It was almost funny. They really had no idea.

The "New Drug Project" was my brainchild. I had only offered it to Hart Pharmaceuticals to bolster my familys standing in the biotech market. But if they wanted to play games, the game was over.

Alexs face was a mask of iron as he stepped forward, prying my hand off the older womans wrist.

"Isabel, enough!" he barked. "One is the sister whose life you stole for twenty years. The other is the mother who raised you. Do you have to be this vindictive?"

His grip was tightthe same way he used to hold my hand in the field, his breath ragged, promising me that if we made it out alive, hed spend the rest of his life making me happy.

I never doubted his love then. But love is a volatile element. It shifts. It decays.

"Apologize to Lucy and her mother," Alex commanded. "Now. Or I will make sure you never work in this city again."

He was using the same protective instincts he once used to defend me, but now the weapon was pointed at my heart.

"Even knowing they started this? Even knowing she hit me first? You still want me to apologize, Alex?"

Alex set his jaw and looked away.

My mother, seeing his support, lunged forward and landed another slap. "Shut up, Isabel! Hes your sisters husband now. You have no right to speak to him like that!"

I started to laugh, but tears escaped anyway.

"I have no right? My sister stole my husband, Mom... I have more right than anyone."

Alexs voice turned icy. "She is Lucys mother, Isabel. Not yours."

I cut him off, staring directly into my mothers pale, panicked face. "She is."

My mother began to scream, her voice frantic. "Stop it! Don't listen to her!"

I smiled, though my heart felt like it was being shredded. "She had a one-night stand, had me, and dumped me on my grandmother. She married into the Hart family a year later. It wasn't until Lucy went missing at age five that she 'adopted' me to fill the void."

My mothers eyes went wide. She hadn't realized I knew the truth.

"Don't listen to her!" she shrieked to the hallway. "Shes lost her mind since we kicked her out! She was a charity case from an orphanage! We have the papers!"

After my grandmother died, I was sent to the foster system. I was seven, but I looked fourstunted, bruised, and starving. I remember the day she "found" me. She cried for twenty-four hours straight. I thought it was guilt. I thought it was love. I thought all those years of overcompensating were her trying to be a mother.

But her love was a paper-thin thing. It couldn't withstand Lucys whispers.

"Mom," I said, the word tasting like ash. "Thats the last time I call you that. Good luck. Youre going to need it."

Alex opened his mouth to say something, but Lucy suddenly collapsed against him.

"Alex... my head... I feel like I'm dying..."

My mothers face went white. "Lucy has a heart condition! Any stress could trigger an episode! Get her to a doctor, now!" She turned to me, her voice trembling with rage. "The new research projectthe one for congenital heart defectsthats for Lucy! Thats why we needed this partnership! Shes going to be on the research team. She has to be!"

Alexs flicker of hesitation vanished. He glared at me with pure hatred. "Isabel, you knew she was sick, and you still pushed her. If anything happens to her or the baby, I will bury you."

He scooped Lucy up and ran toward the emergency wing.

The man who once promised to protect me for a lifetime was now promising to be my grave-digger.

I wiped the tears from my face, my expression going cold and flat. I pulled out my phone and dialed a number I hadn't called in a long time.

"If you still want to marry me," I said, "be at the courthouse in thirty minutes."

I heard a sharp, intake of breath on the other end. A voice, tight with restrained emotion, replied:

"I'll be there in fifteen."

Alex, you didn't throw me away. Im finally letting you go.

After signing the papers, I disappeared into the high-security labs of DM BioTech. I ignored every call from Alex, every text from the Harts. I stayed until the first phase of the clinical trials was locked.

When I finally emerged, I found a scene I didn't expect. The Harts and Alex were standing in the lobby of the DM Research Center, looking frantic.

I had given orders to blackball both families. Why were they here?

I turned to take the side elevator, but Alex spotted me.

"Isabel!" he roared, charging across the lobby. He grabbed my arm and shoved me against the wall. My head cracked against the marble, and my ears began to ring. "I knew it! Youre the one blocking Lucys spot in the trial!"

I didn't have the energy for this. I tried to pull away, but he pinned me harder.

"The Harts already wired you a million dollars as a settlement! What more do you want? Why are you trying to kill her?" He was shaking with rage. "Lucy needs to be part of this research team to get priority access to the trial drug. Her heart can't wait. Do you really want her blood on your hands?"

Lucy was leaning weakly against my mother, playing the frail victim to perfection. I knew her medical historyshe had a murmur, but it wasn't the death sentence she was pretending it was.

"This project is a joint venture between DM and Hart Pharmaceuticals," Alex spat. "Who do you think you are? You claim you don't want anything from the Harts, yet here you are, clinging to a research position just to spite her. Youre pathetic."

He leaned in closer, his breath hot against my face. "One phone call from me, and Ill have you fired. Youll be lucky if you can get a job as a school nurse when Im done."

My assistant, Sarah, came running over, looking horrified. "I am so sorry, Dr. HartI mean, Ms. Sterling. I didn't know they would force their way in."

Alex misinterpreted her apology. He turned to Sarah, sneering. "You're damn right you're sorry. Get your boss, Anna, down here in ten minutes. If I don't see her, Cross Holdings pulls every cent of investment from this project."

My mother stepped up, her face twisted in a mask of self-righteousness. "And tell her if Isabel isn't gone by tonight, the Harts are pulling out too!"

Lucy watched me, a tiny, triumphant smile tugging at her lips. She thought she had won. She thought money and influence could buy her a seat at a table she hadn't earned.

But they didn't realize that I wasn't just a researcher. I was the reason they were even in the building.

Sarah stood frozen. Alex growled, "What are you waiting for? Call Anna!"

I held up a hand to stop Sarah. "Let him."

Alex pulled out his phone, his eyes fixed on mine. "Fine. Watch your career die, Isabel."

He hit the speed dial.

A second later, a clear, crisp ringtone echoed through the silent marble lobby.

It was coming from my pocket.