The Billionaire's Rental Wife Is A Hot Shot

The music stopped, filling the entire garden with a chilling silence. The Reign family, who had tried to stop Sabrina Grey earlier, sighed heavily. Avery, who wanted to intervene, was held back by her mother, Penelope Cartwell.

"But—" Avery began, but Penelope shook her head, causing Avery to huff and silently glare at the woman standing between the newlyweds.

"How dare you, Zevian Reign?" Sabrina roared, her voice full of contempt and pain. Evelyn quickly recognized the middle-aged, blonde-haired woman as Zevian’s former mother-in-law, Katherine Grey’s mother, and Natalie’s mother-in-law.

"How shameless of you to move on so quickly and marry another woman?!" When Zevian didn’t reply, his eyes lowered to the ground, Sabrina continued, "Do you think you deserve happiness after what you did? After killing my precious daughter?!"

"It was an accident! He did not kill her!" Avery boldly intervened, ignoring her mother’s plea. She felt someone glaring at her and turned to see Katherine’s elder brother, Dominic Grey, and Natalie’s husband.

"What?" Avery glowered at the man. "It wasn’t his fault that it was pouring heavily and his car brakes didn’t work." She had seen this family blame Zevian just to feel less guilty about their daughter’s death and it was time to put an end to it. But when Natalie pleaded with her eyes to stop, she sighed and shut her mouth like every other time.

Evelyn had heard the news from Avery just a few hours after the deadly accident. Zevian and his wife, Katherine, were traveling somewhere that evening, only to get stuck in a heavy rainstorm and end up getting hit by a truck. While Katherine lost her life on the spot, Zevian had been in a coma for almost a month, only to wake up to the sad news that his beloved wife was no more. And as much as she could understand Sabrina’s pain, Avery was right.

She couldn’t help but glance worriedly at Zevian, who was awfully silent, his expression breaking her heart. Having been blamed for her mother’s death ever since childhood by her father, she could somewhat understand the guilt in his eyes—something that could take years to break free from, or maybe never.

Sabrina glanced at Evelyn, bringing her out of her thoughts. Wiping her tears, the blonde woman turned back to Zevian and declared, "Now that you have broken your promise to never bring another woman and raise Kiana alone, I will break mine too, Mr. Reign."

Zevian’s eyes looked up in horror, the guilt overshadowed by panic. This was the first time Evelyn had ever seen him pale out. "No!" Zevian retorted, his voice filled with desperate pleas.

Sabrina adamantly shook her head, having confirmed his second marriage with this lavish party. When Zevian had woken up after a month in a coma three years ago, he had gone on his knees and begged to take the one-year-old Kiana with him. She had agreed on the condition that her granddaughter would never have a stepmother. But since he had taken their deal lightly, she would snatch away Kiana just as he had permanently taken her darling Katie away from her.

Turning around, she walked toward her daughter-in-law Natalie, who was carrying Kiana. Sensing that her Nana was trying to separate her from her daddy like she did a few months ago, Kiana jumped down from Natalie’s arms. Sabrina tried to grab her, but the little girl escaped and ran up to the stage, hugging Zevian’s legs.

"Please don’t send me away," Kiana pleaded as Zevian picked her up in his arms, both staring at the angry Sabrina.

Sabrina scoffed and decided to be kind enough to allow Zevian to enjoy these last days with Kiana. "I will give you a day, Natalie. Choose which family you want to be in," she said to her daughter-in-law, someone who had to bear the brunt of all the clashes between the two families. Even Dominic glared at his wife before following his mother out of the mansion.

The guests who had come for drama sure had enough to talk about for months. It was well known how much Sabrina resented Zevian after losing her daughter in that accident three years ago, and it seemed to be escalating into a hurricane now.

Zevian just hugged Kiana tightly, the thought of losing her too evoking emotions that had long gone numb. Before Evelyn could take a step closer to console him, he quickly left the place, wanting to shield the little girl in his arms from all this mess.

The bouncers and event staff quickly guided the guests toward the food court at Jonathan’s order, making sure to clear out all photos or videos capturing the incident. Avery quickly rushed to Evelyn’s side and escorted her toward the mansion, with her mother Penelope helping Natalie and Rosalind inside.

A few minutes heavy with silence and tension passed inside the lavish hall of the mansion. While Penelope and Rosalind tried to comfort the crying Natalie, Evelyn sat silently beside Avery, her eyes stealing glances upstairs toward the room Zevian had entered earlier with Kiana.

"It’s all my fault, Mom! I should never have forced him to marry Katherine in the first place," Natalie started, going back to six years ago.

’So it was Natalie that forced Zevian to betray me at the last minute?’ Evelyn couldn’t help but think, recalling how her once 24-year-old rebellious husband had rebuked his father’s decision just to be with her, to protect whatever they had at that time.

Sensing Evelyn was lost in her thoughts, Avery thought it was the best time to reveal a few things to her. Evelyn didn’t want to ever speak about what happened after Zevian’s betrayal and felt like confessing the baggage she had been holding until now. And somewhere she knew if Evelyn heard what exactly happened, she would be able to open up her heart to Zevian again.

Holding onto her hand, Avery started, "The Grey family had come up with this marriage proposal between Katherine and Zevian to strengthen their ties. But when Zevian declined it to their face, Dominic started threatening Natalie with divorce if Zevian didn’t marry his sister. Natalie hadn’t conceived even though they were married for three years, and he used all his tricks to trap her."

When Evelyn’s eyes narrowed, Avery sighed and continued, "The day you both decided to get married, Natalie blackmailed him to kill herself with a knife at her throat if Zevian didn’t agree to get engaged with Katherine."

Evelyn had suspected his family’s persuasion but hearing that there was a greater reason, she could understand his decision at that moment. But that wasn’t the only blow Avery decided to throw at her that night.

"And three years ago, that accident happened on their way to court for their divorce."

Evelyn’s mouth opened in shock, not expecting that at all. Didn’t everyone believe Zevian and Katherine were truly in love and Kiana’s arrival had only strengthened their bond? So why were they getting separated before fate intervened?

"Why?" she asked in confusion.

With a long sigh, Avery revealed the hidden truth from the world. "Katherine was caught cheating with another man, right in their bedroom when Zevian was on a business trip."