My Brutal Ex Choked Me Over An Ultrasound Picture, But He Had No Idea The Feared Billionaire Behind Him Was My Secret Husband

Colin’s fingers dug into the soft skin of Naomi’s neck, pinning her against the exposed brick wall beside the café window.

The world shrank to the painful pressure against her windpipe and the suffocating smell of his cheap cologne.

"You don't walk away from me," Colin whispered into her face, his eyes dilated with manic rage. "You belong to me. You'll always be the girl crying on the floor."

Naomi couldn't breathe, her fingers frantically clawing at his iron wrist as black spots danced across her vision. She shielded her lower abdomen with her free arm, terrified for the tiny life growing inside her.

The bell above the café door rang, its cheerful chime sounding absurdly out of place.

Naomi turned her desperate, pleading eyes toward the doorway, tears blurring her sight.

Through the haze, she saw him.

Luca stood just inside the entrance, his charcoal overcoat soaked with rain, breathing heavily as if he had sprinted six city blocks. His eyes swept across the room and locked instantly onto Colin’s hand wrapped around her throat.

The atmosphere in the café instantly plunged below freezing.

It wasn't ordinary anger on Luca’s face; it was an ancient, terrifying wrath that made the hair on the back of Naomi’s neck stand up.

Behind Luca, the burly figure of Marco filled the doorway, quietly turning the deadbolt on the café door and flipping the cardboard sign to CLOSED.

"Let her go," Luca said, his voice terrifyingly calm, low, and quiet.

Colin didn't let go immediately; instead, he sneered over his shoulder, completely oblivious to who was standing in the shadows. "Mind your own business, old man, before I make you—"

Before Colin could finish his sentence, Luca closed the distance between them in two blinding strides.

His hand clamped onto Colin’s wrist with a sickening, audible snap. Colin screamed in agony as Luca twisted his arm completely around, tearing him off Naomi like a ragdoll.

Naomi collapsed against the brick wall, coughing and gasping for precious oxygen.

Luca didn't waste a second look on the screaming man writhing on the floor; instead, he dropped immediately to his knees in front of Naomi, his trembling hands cupping her bruised face.

"Naomi," Luca whispered, his voice shaking with a terror she had never heard from him before. "Look at me. Look at me, sweetheart. Are you alright?"

"Luca... the baby," she gasped out before she could stop herself, clutching her stomach with trembling fingers.