The Night My Ex Lost A Billionaire!

Mistake.

CHAPTER ONE

“You were never in the picture, Jensen. You were only a mistake I was waiting to fix.”

Those words would ruin Jensen’s night in exactly 7 minutes.

But he didn’t know that yet.

Instead, he wove through the dancing crowd at Club Venox the way he’d learned after years of taking shifts: duck, pivot, and smile at whoever’s elbow catches his ribs.

His phone read 11:53pm.

Seven minutes to midnight. Seven minutes to twenty-two. To the only birthday that ever actually mattered.

He had already decided how he’d spend the first ten minutes of being twenty-two: buying Rose, his girlfriend, those concert tickets before the presale closed.

She’d been wanting them since spring. He could finally afford them tonight, and the thought had kept him smiling through six hours on his feet.

And shit, his feet hurt like hell.

“Hey, College-boy! Look alive. VIP room two needs another bottle!”

The Club manager yelled at Jensen. But the music was so loud that Jensen didn’t catch his voice.

The manager cut through the crowd and grabbed Jensen’s shirt.

“Are you ignoring me on purpose?” He bellowed into Jensen’s face.

Jensen frowned. “No.”

“Then go serve the VIP their fucking vodka. It’s room 2, you dimwit!”

He leaned closer to Jensen.

“Pull this shit again and I’ll fire your slow ass!”

The man shoved Jensen back. Jensen could feel his anger rising. But he held back, releasing his hand that was clenching into a fist.

He had endured all of this for years just so he could make Rose happy. Almost everything he earned went into her sustenance.

Jensen grabbed a bottle of vodka and strolled down the VIP corridor; the one with rooms that cost more per hour than he made in a week.

Room Two’s door sat open a few inches. He almost walked past it.

Then he heard the laugh.

Jensen stilled.

He knew that laugh. He had fallen asleep to it for three years.

Jensen slowly pushed the door open.

The horror unfolded before his eyes.

Rose, barely dressed, smooching and caressing another guy!

This wasn’t just a guy. It was Benjamin Starr. Captain of Pendleton University football team. Heir apparent of Starr Inc. The same guy Rose always told him not to worry about.

Jensen stood frozen in the doorway, already building some innocent explanation, when Benjamin closed the last inch of distance and kissed her.

Rose kissed him back. Deeply. Passionately.

The bottle hit the floor before Jensen told his hand to drop it. Glass exploded in every direction. Everyone in the room turned at once.

“Jensen!” Rose gasped, quickly dragging the sheets to cover herself.

For a moment, something crossed her eyes. Guilt, maybe?

Then it was gone. Replaced by something darker and more sinister.

“What is this?” Jensen’s voice came out rougher than he meant it to.

Rose sighed.

“I was going to tell you. After tonight–“

“Tell me what?” Jensen cut her off.

“That we’re done!” She snapped at him.

Jensen gritted his teeth.

He’d known the second he saw the cracked door open.

Hearing it still landed like a blow he hadn’t braced for.

“You’ve been cheating on me.” He said in a whisper.

Rose rolled her eyes.

“Don’t make this bigger than it is.”

There was no apology in her voice. Just tiredness, like he was the inconvenience.

“I’m tired, Jensen. Tired of being the girlfriend everyone pities. I’m fucking tired of your poverty!”

She shifted on the couch.

“My friends talk about Bali and dinners that cost more than your salary. Expensive bags and clothes. Trips I can only dream of. And me?” She chuckled painfully.

“I have to say my boyfriend’s working. Always fucking working but nothing to show for it.”

Rose glanced at Benjamin like she needed reassurance even now.

“Benny has a future. He can give me an actual life. One you can only dream of.”

Benny.

The nickname sounded like venom in Jensen’s ears.

“I loved you,” Jensen said quietly.

“No. You loved the idea of us.”

For half a second her voice softened, almost melancholic.

“Fantasies don’t pay rent, Jensen. They can’t make me a happy girlfriend. I was going to end it after graduation. Honestly it's better you found out now.”

She added dismissively, returning to Benjamin’s arms.

Benjamin’s football buddies scattered on the sofas, drinking, while watching the show.

Something in Jensen went very still and clear.

“You’re making a mistake,” he said.

Rose blinked. “Excuse me?”

“I can give you everything you just said you wanted.”

The room went quiet for a moment. And then, the laughter that followed was worse than cruelty.

Benjamin nearly spilled his drink.

“That’s fucking hilarious,” he managed to say amidst breathlessness.

“After tonight, everything changes.” Jensen insisted.

“You got paid today, didn’t you.” Rose sized him from head down, almost pitying him.

“A few hundred dollars and suddenly you’re going to change my life?”

More laughter erupted. Rose’s voice was especially loud. She kept looking at him, like he was a huge chunk of disappointment.

Jensen’s mouth opened. Some part of him wanted to tell the truth behind all this. Why age twenty-two was such a significant milestone for him.

But just before he could, Benjamin stood up.

“Alright, Let’s stop pretending.” He said lazily.

“Funniest part, Jensen? I knew you worked here. I brought her here on purpose. I wanted you to see what kind of life I was giving her.”

He raised his glass like a toast.

“Trash bags like you need to learn your place early. Else you fester around beautiful women such as my sexy Rose.”

He smiled at her. She smiled back.

“That’s right. You were never in the picture, Jensen. You were only a mistake I was waiting to fix.”

Rose intoned.

That statement cut through Jensen’s heart like a knife. His burning feet went numb, realizing that for God knows how long, he’d been nothing but a placeholder.

Then Benjamin pulled Rose onto his lap and kissed her neck, slowly, while his eyes were on Jensen the whole time.

Rose moaned and rocked her waist on his crotch. She bit her lower lip and gasped while she grabbed his cock.

Benjamin’s friends cheered them on. Some even popped Champagne. But Jensen’s fury was skyrocketing. He could barely contain it.

Then Benjamin suddenly bent Rose over and thrust his cock inside her from behind.

She moaned out loud while he fucked her fast and hard.

“This is how a real man treats his girl!”

Benjamin said to Jensen and spit on him.

Jensen’s fist moved before he could stop it, aiming straight for Benjamin’s jaw.

But suddenly, a large hand grabbed Jensen’s arm midair. It was Benjamin’s bodyguard, built like a vault door.

The first punch from the man made Jensen spin. The second put him on a table. By the third, the man wasn’t even trying.

“Pathetic,” he muttered, hauling Jensen up by the collar. He dragged Jensen out of the club and threw him into the streets, closing the door with a slam.

Jensen sat on the curb for a long moment.

Blood gathered at the corner of his mouth. Neon slid over puddles he hadn’t noticed forming. Nobody on the street looked at him twice.

Did any of it ever matter? He wondered.

Three years of love, of being careful with money he didn’t have. And tonight it had earned him a shattered heart and a banged up face.

He checked the time.

12:00 AM.

Jensen sighed. Finally, It was time.

He reached into his jacket. But not for the cracked phone in his back pocket, the other one.

The one that had ridden against his ribs every day for years, through every double shift.

The one owned by every heir of the four top families.

Black, unbranded, with a single silver crest pressed into the back where a logo should have been.

Suddenly, the screen woke on its own, the blue light spilling across his bruised face.

[Please verify identity.]

The scan passed over his eye while the AI spoke.

[Iris confirmed. Welcome back, Heir.]

For a second, nothing else happened.

Then the display lit up immediately.

[Private Account: Activated. Family Authority: Restored. Asset Access: Approved.]

[Ten million dollars has been transferred to your account.]

[Happy Birthday, Heir Jensen Pike]

He stared at the number until it stopped looking like one.

His other phone rang. The cracked one.

“Brother!” A girl’s voice was already laughing.

“Four years and you didn’t even text first.”

Something warmed inside him. How he’d missed that voice.

“Geena.”

“Don’t sound so surprised. And a happy birthday to you. I’ve missed you, big brother.” She said.

Then she paused when he simply sighed.

“You okay? You sound like you got hit by a truck.”

Jensen sighed.

“Something like that.”

“Checking for your location right now.” Geena’s voice shifted, into something more serious. That tone always preceded something expensive.

“Don’t move an inch, big brother.”

Jensen looked up at the skyline, at nothing in particular.

“I’m not going anywhere,” he said, and almost meant it as a joke.

“Good,” Geena said. “Because we’re already on our way.”