NADIA

I opened my eyes and instantly regretted it.

My head hurt. Throbbing like it was about to blow.

Even the sunlight coming in from the windows wasn't enough to clear my foggy vision.

Then a sharp, pungent smell hit me.

I reeked of alcohol. Lots and lots of alcohol.

“Ahh,” I groaned slightly. “I really shouldn't have drunk so much.” My fingers rubbed against my forehead as I tried to will the stampede happening in my head to a stop.

My eyes opened, looking around the room.

For a minute I didn't know where I was, then it hit me. I was in Elias room.

My gaze fell on a glass of water beside painkillers on the bedside table, and to the bathroom, where I could hear the sound of a running shower.

I looked back at the glass cup and reached for it. It's only fair for him to take care of me, seeing as he was the reason I was this wrecked in the first place.

Hearing your husband is intentionally bankrupting his company to fund the lifestyle of his mistress is news no woman ever wants to hear in her life.

But I'd heard it last night, and it had hit me so badly that I reached for a bottle of whiskey and drowned my sorrows at the bottom of the bottle.

I took a large sip of water and threw the painkillers into my mouth before gulping and flushing them down with more water.

I leaned back against the headboard and shut my eyes.

A scene played in my head, and I imagined how the confrontation with Elias would go. Would he admit it? Or would he lie to my face?

Maybe I could make him see reason…

My eyes snapped open. My blurry vision landed on the bathroom door, where the shower was still running.

Of course! This wasn't the time for me to mourn or grieve what our marriage could have been. It's time for me to show Elias what I'm capable of.

If I could prove to him that I could help him out of this bankruptcy, that he didn't need to be with that gold-digger…

A smile spread across my face as the plan grew into something beautiful and magical in my head.

Gently, I placed my feet on the floor, stood upright, and walked up to the bathroom, my hands gliding against the wall for support.

I reached for the doorknob and tilted it, glad to find it open.

I walked in, stared at the shower glass that was now clouded with steam.

I closed the door behind me and moved to the glass door, sliding it open.

Elias stood under the shower, his back turned to me, and my eyes roamed his body, staring at the defined muscles on his back, his broad shoulders, the lines leading to his perky ass.

You've always loved me being spontaneous, right? Well, here's something spontaneous for you.

I slid the door shut behind me, but before he could turn to face me, I covered the distance between us.

My hand went around his body, and my face pressed against his back.

My nightgown from last night soaking up quickly from the water dripping down his back.

“Elias,” I whispered, my hands drifting over his defined abs and V-line.

Since when did he feel so… fit?

“I’m sorry about last night. I shouldn't have spoken to you the way I did,” I began, one hand caressing his abdomen, and the other drifting lower. “I was just feeling hurt and didn't know how to deal with it.”

My hand moved to his hardness and caressed it softly.

I felt the moment he tensed against me. “Can't you see how much I really care about you?”

He was way too big, and even with both hands, I could barely grip the entire length of him.

Yet, I didn't stop.

My hands moved, striking him, rubbing my fingers against his tip, the water making it easier for my hand to glide over the length of him.

Feeling and hearing him respond to my touch made me smile.

“Give me a chance, just one. And I’ll show you that I'm much better than Chloe. I can give you everything she can't.”

Let me prove myself to you…

I pressed my lips against his back.

That's when he moved. The shower turned off, big hands covered mine where I was currently holding the object of his arousal.

His head angled as he gazed at me from over his shoulder, and his lips moved.

“What are you doing?”

Almost like thunder, his voice zapped through my hazy state, and my blurry vision cleared instantly.

I froze.

Too scared to breathe, hoping this was an illusion. But it wasn't.

The man in the bathroom wasn't Elias! It was Killian!

As if my brain had just processed the information, the reality of my current position suddenly hit me.

I jerked away from him, ran out of the bathroom—which I now realized was the guest room—and raced for my bedroom.

I rushed in, shut the door behind me, and sank to my knees.

I… I… I fondled my step-son’s dick!

My gaze fell to my trembling hands… the same ones that had just—

“But how could they look so alike?!” I asked aloud, my breathing erratic as I forced myself to my feet, coming face to face with my pale and mortified reflection in the mirror.

Thanks to the stupid alcohol I had drunk, I couldn't even tell my husband and his son apart!

I ran my hands through my hair. “Oh, what do I do? I can't face him! I'll die of embarrassment!”

But I have to face him. I have to apologize to him. I just harassed the man!

“For fuck's sake! Why didn't he say anything? He just stood there and took it!” I almost yanked my hair out of my head.

It's not like you gave him a chance to do so.

“Oh, just kill me. Kill me now.”

***

After pacing in my bedroom for what felt like hours, I finally got dressed for breakfast, ready to face Killian and hopefully apologize to him at the table if Elias wasn't there.

Like I'd predicted, Elias was absent, and only Killian sat at the dining table with a frown on his face. He looked upset.

Of course he is. His father's wife literally harassed him in his bathroom!

Fuck! I'm going to jail.

I swallowed, taking hesitant steps toward him.

He didn't look up, almost as if he didn't hear me. I covered the distance between us, standing a few steps away.

“K-Killian.”

His gaze met mine, and my confidence went to dust.

My eyes darted away, and my fingers played with the sides of my dress.

“I want to—”

“Here, take this,” he said, throwing a brown envelope on the dining table.

My goodness! He didn't even waste any time to sue me! I'm going to jail. I'm going to jail because I can't handle a little alcohol.

“I know I made a mistake, and I promise it wasn't intentional—”

“What are you on about?” He frowned.

“Don't file a complaint about me, please,” my teary gaze darted to the envelope. “I don't want to go to jail.”

“What the—Are you still drunk? My father told me to give that to you.”

I blinked. “Oh.”

Wiping my tears away, I reached for the envelope and tore open the seal.

I pulled out the document inside, and my stomach dropped.

“Divorce papers?!”

NADIA

My hand trembled as I read the words printed on the papers over and over again. Slowly, they blurred as tears pooled in my eyes.

“B-But why?” I whispered, looking up at Killian as a tear dropped down my cheek.

He shrugged nonchalantly, refusing to meet my gaze.

My eyes closed. “N-No, no. There… this has to be a mistake. There's no way he'd do this to me.”

“Nadi.” I paused, meeting his gaze as the old nickname slipped out in a soft whisper. “He signed it already.”

Frantically, I flipped through the papers and found a total of five signatures. Elias signatures.

“He said you have twenty-four hours to sign them before the lawyer comes to pick them up.”

“Stop it!” I screeched, glaring at Killian. If my eyes could shoot lasers, he'd be dust right now. “I don't want to hear his words from you!”

I yanked out my phone, angrily swiping through my contacts for his number. “I want to hear him say those words to me himself!” I whispered harshly.

His phone rang for a few seconds before he disconnected it.

I huffed, trying again and angrily wiping away my tears.

The same thing happened. My fingers tightened around the phone and I tried three more times until the call no longer connected.

He blocked me.

“Nadia.”

I looked at Killian and saw him staring at his phone, his brows pulled tight and his lips stretched thin.

When he looked up, his eyes held a spark of anger and concern in them.

“He won't pick up.”

I blinked, staring at his phone screen where Elias message was displayed.

Tell her to quit calling me. All I want are her signatures on those papers.

“Honestly, you should have seen this coming.” Killian sighed. “There's a clause. You can stay in the house, pretend everything's fine until he marries Chloe.”

“Chloe?” I muttered. For a moment, the dining room was silent until my head tilted backward and a laugh so dark and empty rang out from my lips.

My husband of ten years was divorcing me to get married to his secretary?!

“No.” I chuckled, throwing the papers on the table. “I'm not signing it.”

I turned to leave, muttering under my breath, “There's no way I'm signing it.”

“This isn't something you can avoid. He's already moved on.”

“I don't care!” I swung around and yelled at Killian. “That doesn't change anything. I've been married to him for ten fucking years. The least he can do is say it to my face that he wants to divorce me to marry that slut of his!”

“Wasn't I good enough?” The tears rolled now, uncontrollably, and so did my rage. I wanted to murder someone.

“I gave him everything! He's old enough to be my father, and yet he married me, and I gave him everything! My life, my heart, my soul, my body!” My body shook, my veins strained against my neck from how hard I screamed.

“I trusted him.” My voice broke. “Ten years! He wasted ten good years of my life! Plucked me out of my family like some helpless chick, only to use me and dump me once he found someone better. Screw him! Screw her! Screw all of you!”

I spun around and dashed to my room. I slammed the door shut behind me, causing my room to rattle from the force.

I collapsed facedown on my bed, and for the first time in a long time, I cried my soul out.

***

I had no idea how many hours had flown by when the sound of my door creaking open finally pierced through the quiet air.

I continued to stare into space, paying whoever it was that walked into my room no mind. I was broken, shattered beyond words.

“Nadia,” Killian’s low, soft voice sounded in the air. I felt the bed dip at my feet, but I ignored him.

“I won't pretend to know how you feel, but I can at least sympathize with you. You're… a sweet soul, and my father deserves to rot in hell for what he did to you. He has no right—”

“Killian, please.” I cut him off, unable to bear the words that escaped him like he'd practiced them over and over again. “I just want to be left alone.”

He sighed. “I'm clearly very bad at this, so I'll go straight to the point.”

I heard him adjust himself on the bed.

“Are you seriously going to let him do that to you?”

I blinked, slowly turning to stare at him. “What?”

“I'm asking if you're going to let Elias and Chloe walk all over you just because…”

I scoffed with disbelief. “You sound like I have a choice to oppose this divorce.”

“Oppose it? Hell, I want you to accept it and make him wish he'd never even looked your way from the start. I want you to seize this opportunity to make him hurt like he hurt you, to make them regret ever treating you like you were disposable.”

I straightened up, his words sending a jolt of life through me. “How?”

“Easy. Attack him where it would hurt most. Destroy everything he's ever worked for, snatch it from right under his feet, and watch him scramble helplessly, unable to do anything.” His eyebrows slanted, and his eyes glinted with undiluted fury.

“Why cry over what he took from you… when you could take something back?”

The only thing Elias loved more than his life was…

“His company? You want me to destroy his company?” I asked with a shocked frown. “But I don't know the first thing about destroying a company.”

“That's why you have me. Join me, and let's show him what hell really looks like.”

“You're just trying to use me.” I scowled. Killian hated his father — that wasn't news to me — but hiding behind wanting to help me didn't sit well with me.

“And I'm offering myself to be used.” He smirked.

I held his gaze for longer than three seconds, studying him. And then I straightened, damning it all.

“What do I get in return?”

Killian’s eyes lit up like a bulb, his lips spreading into a cunning smirk. “Now you're talking.”

NADIA

“Yes.” The words left my mouth before I could hesitate. “I'll work with you. I'll do it.”

Killian’s lips curled into a slow smile, satisfaction blazing in his eyes. “You made the right choice,” he said, and I couldn't help the shiver that ran down my spine.

His sharp, calculating gaze had morphed into something else—something that made goosebumps appear on my skin and made me feel warm all at the same time.

“So,” I cleared my throat, “how do we start?”

“Start?” he asked.

“Yes. How do we go about destroying Elias?” The word sounded so foreign on my tongue. I went from aching for his attention and affection to wanting to ruin him in three seconds.

Killian chuckled, waving a finger in the air. “We’re not destroying him, Nady.”

There it was again—that silly nickname that did things to me. Then his words hit me. “We’re not?” I arched an eyebrow.

He shook his head with a lazy smile. “No. We’re dismantling him. Slowly and painfully. And by the time he finally realizes what’s going on, there’ll be nothing left to save. Besides,” he clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth, “it’s more fun.”

The wicked gleam in his eyes should have scared me. Instead, it pulled me closer, making me tilt my head at him.

“You really hate your old man, don’t you?” I asked softly, and those sharp, rageful eyes darted to me.

“I’m hoping you feel the same way too,” he answered, shooting to his feet. “Come on.” He gestured with his finger and walked out of my bedroom door.

Do I? I doubted it. No matter what Elias had done to me, my hatred and anger couldn’t come close to that of Killian.

A sliver of fear shot through me. Would I be able to escape this arrangement unscathed?

I swung my legs off the bed and hurried toward the door, walking twice as fast just to catch up with him.

Killian stood at the base of the stairs waiting for me as I approached. Just when I got to him, his hand shot out. I stared at it cautiously, as if waiting for a venomous snake to jump out and strike me.

Not that he wasn’t capable of doing that.

My hand shook slightly as I placed it in his. His grip tightened around it, but not hard enough to hurt.

He pulled me along until we reached Elias private study. He held the doorknob and pushed the door open before letting me inside.

My gaze roamed the sturdy study, noting the shelves lining the walls, filled with books—all non-fiction—neatly arranged.

The walls and tables shared the same deep brown colour. A black revolving chair sat in front of the desk, facing the door.

“What are we doing here?” I asked as Killian walked up to the table.

“I want to show you something. And this room, as ironic as it sounds, is the best place for us to have this discussion.”

My brows furrowed. “Here?”

He turned to face me with a narrowed gaze. “You’ve never been here, have you?”

I shook my head. “It’s off-limits to me. It was one of his rules when we first got married, and I’ve obeyed it every single day for the past ten years—until now.”

“Hmm. Interesting.” Before I could ask what he meant, Killian continued, “The walls of this room are padded. In other words, it’s soundproof.”

He tapped on his phone screen and handed it to me. It was a news article with no date or signature.

FORMER EMPLOYEE FILES LAWSUIT AGAINST HAWTHORNE INDUSTRIES OVER WORKPLACE MISCONDUCT COVER-UP

My brows drew together. “What is this?”

“An unpublished news article that’s scheduled to be released in… the next six hours.”

“I don’t understand.”

“A senior executive was accused of harassment by multiple employees—both male and female.” He tucked one hand into his pocket while the other gestured animatedly in the air.

“Suddenly, complaints stopped, and settlements were made to cover up the issue. The man was never fired. Instead, he had more ground to continue his reckless behavior. But this time, no one complained—they didn’t dare to.”

A part of me already knew the answer before I asked. “Did he know?”

“Not only that. He approved the settlements.”

I stared at the news article again. “Why now? If they were too scared to go against the company five years ago, why are they doing it now?”

“Simple. Because they finally found legal backing strong enough to help them with the case—someone who’s willing to do anything to give them justice.”

I blinked. “You?”

He responded with a shrug.

“But this isn’t enough to destroy him or his company. These people agreed to settlements. Their case isn’t that strong.”

“True,” he nodded, “but this is just the first step. Once he’s slammed with this, trust begins to dwindle, customer ratings start flickering. Before he even gets a chance to win this case, he’ll be hit immediately with another.”

He reached out and swiped the screen. Two news headlines popped up—both unpublished, but perfectly crafted to add damage to the already rising scandal.

ELIAS HAWTHORNE INDUSTRIES FACES INTERNAL INVESTIGATION OVER MISAPPROPRIATED FUNDS

SCANDAL ROCKS HAWTHORNE INDUSTRIES: CEO ACCUSED OF FINANCIAL MISCONDUCT; SHARES PLUMMET OVERNIGHT

This is bad.

“You have it all thought out.”

He nodded. “All that’s left is execution.”

“Looks like you have everything under control. What do you need me for, then?”

“A lot of things. This house is a hive of secrets. I’m sure if you dig enough, you can find more damning evidence against him. Keep up the appearance of the loving, abandoned wife so when it all comes down to it, you have the sympathy of the masses to do with as you please.”

“How long will this take?”

“Weeks… months maybe, depending on how quickly we can gather evidence against him.”

Wow, that long?

“And my compensation?”

He moved closer—too close for comfort—and the air around us suddenly became charged.

“Regarding that, there are complications.”

He hadn’t mentioned anything about complications when he tried to make me work with him. Fucking manipulator.

“What complications?”

“The prenup.”

My stomach dropped.

“If you sign the papers now, he walks away protected, leaving you high and dry.”

“Then I won’t sign.”

“You’d have to eventually.”

“And yet you promised me huge compensation after this. How on earth do I get it if the prenup already defeats that purpose?”

Something in his eyes flashed, and I instantly knew I wouldn’t like what came next.

“There is one way around it. Marriage changes asset alignments. It complicates legal separation, especially during corporate instability.”

Understanding crept in slowly. My eyes darted between his. “You’re joking.”

“I’m not.”

“You want me to marry you? Can you hear how you sound?” I scowled, taking quick steps back.

“It’s the only way.” His nonchalant answer fueled my anger.

“I won’t do it!” I spun on my heel, storming toward the door.

“Then you leave with nothing. Ten years married to that scum, and you’ll have nothing to show for it.”

I paused, gazing into thin air, my entire body trembling.

Killian appeared in my line of vision, his finger tilting my head up until I met his gaze.

“The ball is in your court, Nadia.” His eyes flashed for a second with an undefined emotion.

“Marry me, Nadia. And screw my father for everything he’s worth.”