My One-Night Stand Turns Out To Be My Boss?!

It was late at night when Cathleen Gordon encountered the man.

Hours earlier, she had attended the birthday party of her stepsister, Emily Gordon. After only a few drinks, a dizziness soon left her unable to think clearly.

Emily had volunteered to escort her back to the room so she could rest. However, as Cathleen reached the doorway, a stranger approached her.

Everything around Cathleen turned hazy after that.

Cathleen regained consciousness sometime after midnight. Her thoughts remained scattered, and much of what had happened was still unclear. Moments later, she escaped the place and rushed to her best friend Jemma Davis' apartment.

Jemma woke up when she heard the commotion. "Cathleen? What's wrong?"

Cathleen couldn't bring herself to answer. She headed directly into the bathroom and locked the door.

Cathleen eventually stepped out and saw Jemma waiting on the couch. A ring rested between Jemma's fingers. "This is beautiful, and there's no doubt it's designer. How did you end up with something this expensive?"

Cathleen looked away. The truth dawned on her at once. The ring must have belonged to the man, and she had probably taken it by accident in the dark.

She was so flustered that she clung to the first excuse she could think of. "I picked it up from the street. It was so pretty that I couldn't leave it behind."

Jemma smiled. "Since you only found it, does that mean I can have it?"

"Go ahead," Cathleen said in a hollow voice.

"Wait... are you really okay?" Jemma asked.

"There's nothing to worry about. I had too much to drink, so I came here to shower and clear my head," Cathleen said, forcing a casual tone.

Cathleen wanted to bury what happened forever, and she had no intention of ever seeing that man again.

"I need to go home." Worried that Jemma might sense something was wrong, Cathleen quickly left the apartment and returned to Bayshell Villa, where she lived alone-though it was supposed to be her home with her husband.

During her sophomore year of college, Cathleen had been pressured into marrying the son of a wealthy family.

Nothing she had heard about him sounded promising. People claimed he was lazy and lacked ambition. They also said he suffered from poor health and was both short and unattractive. Still, his family had given the Gordons more than a hundred million as a wedding gift.

The enormous amount of money had been enough for the Gordon family to force Cathleen into the marriage.

Three years had passed, yet their marriage existed only on paper. Cathleen and her husband hadn't even met once.

As soon as she entered the villa, the butler came forward. "Mrs. Riley, Mr. Riley is home."

Cathleen's heart started pounding with worry. Her husband's timing couldn't have been worse.

Why had he chosen today to come back?

Cathleen was somewhat flustered. She might not have loved her husband, but she was still his wife. What had happened felt like a betrayal she could never excuse.

The butler looked at her pale face. "Mrs. Riley, is something wrong?"

His question snapped her from her thoughts. "No. I'm fine."

"Mr. Riley asked you to meet him in the study the moment you returned." Once he had delivered the message, the butler walked away.

Cathleen pulled in an unsteady breath before climbing the stairs.

Each step toward the study made her pulse beat faster.

Her husband had left Alobert on their wedding night to establish an overseas branch office. Over the next three years, he hadn't returned or called her even once.

Cathleen had never seen his photograph. She didn't even know his first name.

How would he react when he finally saw her?

After gathering her courage, Cathleen reached for the handle and eased the study door open.