“You don’t have that privilege. ”
Jake Lawson’s voice was ice as he stared at me across the dining table. I’d just asked for a divorce, and he was enjoying every second of my desperation. The Dawson Group was bankrupt.
My father lay unconscious in a hospital bed, his medical bills bleeding me dry. “Dare to divorce me,” Jake continued, “and I’ll cut off your father’s medical funds. ”
I swallowed my rage. “Fine.
From now on, we each do as we please. ”
That was the night I walked out and ended up in bed with Braden Lewis—Jake’s archenemy, the man who’d been circling me for weeks with an infuriating grin. I woke up in his penthouse, tangled in sheets I shouldn’t have been in. “Let’s just pretend last night never happened,” I said.
Braden tilted his head, amused. “Mia, I’m a traditional guy. You took my first time. So you have to be responsible for me.
”
“Braden, you should know I’m Mrs. Lawson. ”
“I know. So why don’t you divorce him and marry me?
”
“You’re shameless. ”
He laughed. “I’ve liked you for years. Now that I finally have this chance, I’m not letting go.
”
I didn’t believe him. Men like Braden Lewis didn’t pine for married women. Men like Jake Lawson didn’t either—he was too busy getting his secretary, Aubrey, pregnant. The timing was perfect.
He’d kept me trapped in this marriage for three years, holding my father’s life over my head like a leash. But I had leverage now. “I know you used my uncle to threaten me into marriage,” I said to Jake later. “Back when my uncle was seriously ill, Braden did the first aid.
But when he went to get a doctor and came back, you were by his bedside. You stole his credit. ”
Jake’s face flickered. “It was you?
Mia, you already know—”
“Of course I knew. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have forced myself to marry that jerk. ”
“So you knew all along. And you’re using me too.
”
We were both monsters in our own ways. The difference was, I was done playing the victim. The situation at home became intolerable. Aubrey moved into the Lawson mansion, pregnant with Jake’s child.
His grandmother fawned over her, calling me barren and useless. I became the housekeeper for my husband’s mistress, washing baby clothes and swallowing every insult. “You can’t have kids,” Grandma Lawson sneered. “The least you can do is look after a pregnant woman.
”
“Me? Care for her? Why should I? ”
“Don’t forget who’s paying your father’s medical bills,” Jake added.
I looked at the two of them, these people who thought they owned me. And I smiled. “Fine. I’ll take care of her.
”
They thought they’d won. They didn’t know I had a plan. The auction was my first public move. My painting—anonymously submitted—was on the block.
Jake took Aubrey, buying her a gaudy golden bowl while mocking my art. But Braden was there, seated in the Sky Lantern booth, a place reserved for those who could write a blank check. When my painting came up, he paid thirty million for it. “You’ve got money burning a hole in your pocket,” I said when I found him later.
“I do have money. But I only want to spend it on my sister. ”
“How did you know that painting was mine? ”
“I told you.
My sister and I are on the same wavelength. ”
Jake found out, of course. He confronted me at home, his grandmother and pregnant mistress flanking him. “Aubrey saw you at the auction with Braden.
Being all lovey-dovey in front of me. ”
“I’ve been home all night,” I said. “Washing your other woman’s clothes. ”
“You vicious woman!
Just jealous of Ashton—”
“Apologize to them,” Jake demanded. “Apologize? I’ve waited on your mistress. I’ve washed her clothes.
Now you barge into my room at night causing scenes. Kneel and apologize, or I’ll call Mr. Nash and tell him about the pregnant mistress you’ve hidden in the Lawson house. ”
The threat worked.
Grandma Lawson and Aubrey apologized, seething with humiliation. I’d won that round. And then I took it further. I left the mansion, packed my bags, and when Jake threatened to unplug my father’s life support one last time, I had something better: proof that Lawson Group’s bid was based on fraudulent bank guarantees.
Braden had gathered the evidence. At the bidding conference, Jake was arrested on the spot for financial fraud. “Jake Lawson, sign the divorce papers. Now.
”
“You think divorcing me means you can run off with Braden? Old Master Nash won’t let you get away with it. ”
“I’ll handle the Nash family. You just need to sign.
”
He signed, under pressure from a debt collector I’d hired. The Lawson Group collapsed. Jake went to prison. Aubrey miscarried and was sent to a mental hospital after trying to attack me with a knife.
For a moment, I thought we’d made it. Braden and I were together. I was pregnant—I’d found out just as I was planning to leave him for his own safety. The lab results came back: triplets.
Healthy. But the Nash family wasn’t done. Old Master Nash, who’d watched his nephew Jake fail, now wanted Braden as his heir—but not with me in the picture. “Mia Dobson,” the old man said, summoning me to his residence, “you’ve turned the Fu family upside down.
You’ve seduced Braden, divorced his cousin, and now you’re carrying his child. The Nash family’s century-old reputation cannot be stained by a whore like you. Leave the city, or you’ll disappear. ”
“Disappear?
Like you made those families disappear in the forced demolition case? ”
His face went pale. “You wouldn’t dare. ”
“Braden has the records.
The financial proof. The recordings of you ordering Jake to frame me. And the butler who survived the fire—he’s been waiting years for this. ”
The old man tried to have me killed at the hospital.
Braden’s men intercepted them. He sent Vanessa Ward—the woman who’d orchestrated my assault, who’d driven me into a fake delivery van—to finish the job. But Braden had planted insiders everywhere. Vanessa was caught, and the evidence of the Nash family’s crimes went straight to the media.
“Nash Group’s forced demolition case has been exposed. Family head Rory Nash remains missing. ”
The empire crumbled in days. Rory vanished, then was captured by the police, betrayed by his own butler who died to hand over the evidence.
Aubrey, escaped from the mental hospital, tried to poison me. She was arrested with surveillance footage proving it. And then it was over. Jake was in prison for life.
Rory Nash was in custody. Aubrey was locked up again, this time for good. All the people who’d tried to destroy me had destroyed themselves. I sat in Braden’s penthouse, exhausted and somehow at peace.
He came to me with a small velvet box in his hand. “This ring,” he said, “I’ve carried it since the year I met you in school. I’ve waited so many years. Sis, now that everything’s over, will you make it official with me?
”
“When did I ever ask you to do that? ”
“It’s different now. You’re the mother of my child. But what I want even more is for you to be my Mrs.
Lewis. ”
I looked at him—this man who’d become the other man, who’d risked his entire empire for a married woman he’d loved from afar, who’d saved my father’s life without telling me, who’d never asked for anything in return except to be by my side. “Braden,” I said, “let’s look forward to the years ahead together. ”
I reached for the ring and let him slide it onto my finger.
For the first time in years, the weight in my chest lifted. “Braden, I love you. ”
“I love you too, Mia. I love you too.
“
