Ride or Die: Tamed By My Billionaire Assassin

Chapter 1

Evelyn’s POV

“I have something important to tell you,” Liam says to me with a smile, brushing my shoulders. It was five days to our three year wedding anniversary.

“Wait! Let me guess.”

I tapped my index finger on my lips, looking up with some excited thoughts.

“A trip to Dubai? Some Birkin bags? A honeymoon to Caribbean or—“

I let the rest linger on, waiting for his response. The smile on his face slowly disappeared, I became worried.

“Why not? Did I guess it all wrong?”

These were my bucket lists, either way I knew he could fulfill them all being a billionaire yet I didn’t want much, just one would set a memorable anniversary like the past two had always been.

Silence sailed over, airing gloom.

I waited, my gaze lingering over his face, waiting for him to say what he then had in mind.

“Chloe will be moving in,” he uttered, voice cold.

“Urgh? How? Did something happen to her, was she kicked out?” Chloe is his secretary at Vance Corporation, his billion dollar Ai Tech Company.

She had always been a good friend to me, so I could honestly get worried.

I grabbed his shoulders, raising my worried eyes at him.

“Could she be kicked out of her former apartment because of rent?” I swept my eyes over his face in worry. “If so, let her come and stay with us. We have so many rooms. She’s really welcomed.”

Her parents lived very far away and being so dedicated to work, she might sort for a closer place to the company. So far it’s hardest to find an apartment in this part of our city, no matter the money you’re ready to offer. If it was money, she could do it. Her parents are wealthy.

“No, not that.” He murmured without any emotion.

“What—“ My question stuck in my throat and Liam’s mouth curved into a knowing smile.

Happy to see me sad?

My world slowly started crumbling at this moment.

I had grown up believing life would be more. My parents raised me in a small home where dreams mattered. I had studied hard, graduated from law school, and earned a place in one of the best firms in the city. I was meant for success in courtrooms, to become a prominent woman and most of all to marry a man that loves me so much. I had great dreams.

But love had a way of making fools out of the strongest women.

When Liam smiled at me for the first time, I thought I had won the world. He was rich, handsome, and charming. He told me I was the only one who could steady his restless heart. He asked me to marry him, and I said yes, surrendering my career, my freedom, my dreams. I left them all to marry him and become a housewife and the mother of his child, Isabella, now three years.

Now I sat across from him, my heart aching as I wondered when I had stopped being Evelyn Reed and become only Evelyn Vance.

His words punched the air from my lungs. I stared at him, waiting for the laugh, the cruel joke. But his face was stone.

“You cannot be serious,” I stammered.

“She is carrying my heir,” Liam said, lifting his glass again as if this was toast. “Our daughter will have to accept it. And so will you.” It sounded more like a command.

My chest tightened. I glanced at the framed photo on the side table—the smiling face of our daughter, Isabella. She’s three, with my eyes and his proud chin. She was really fond of her daddy and mummy playing together, loved kisses on her forehead, and holding both of our hands while we went out. She was mine. And now he wanted to bring Chloe into her world, a stepmom.

How’s that even going to work?

Chloe. My best friend. My class partner in college, my sister in everything but blood. We had shared secrets, dresses, even tears. And now she carried my husband’s child.

I stood there sinking deep in thoughts. I couldn’t even fathom how it all started up to becoming what it is today.

I tried to breathe, but the air felt poisoned. “Liam, you cannot do this. You cannot humiliate me like this.”

He leaned back in his chair, his lips curling into something cruel. “You will adapt. This is a capitalist society, Evelyn. Status matters. We cannot divorce—not with my position, not with the company. But Chloe deserves her place as my new wife, the wife of the CEO. Her dad is a great figure in the business world, one that can take my company to places.”

I wanted to scream. To throw the wine glass, the plate, the whole table at him. But my body betrayed me. My hands pressed against my stomach, guarding the secret only I knew, a secret I wanted to tell him on our anniversary day.”

My own pregnancy, still so new, still so fragile. No one knew about it yet. And now I wondered if I ever could say it out any longer.

Liam’s phone buzzed. He picked it up, his face softening all of a sudden. “Yes, sweedie,” he said. His voice was tender, almost sweet. “I will see you tonight.”

“Sweedie.”

He had not called me that in so long.

He ended the call and rose from the table, brushing past me as if I were invisible. The scent of his cologne lingered after he was gone.

I sat in silence, the shattered glass still glittering on the floor. My life, once golden, now cut like broken crystal.

I remembered the first night I walked into the Vance mansion as his wife. The chandeliers sparkled above me, the walls lined with art worth more than my childhood home. I thought I was stepping into a fairytale. Instead, I had locked myself in a cage. A beautiful cage, gilded with wealth but cold as steel.

I remember once when he helped me win a big murder case in court, one I was already getting defeated. He helped me with his connection, money, encouragement. More than I could think of. So I decided to leave the active legal life as a lawyer to take full care of him as his wife.

That's all that mattered to me, that I could be with the one I loved always in hope he will stay with me forever.

Little did I know.

I pressed my hand to my belly again. No one could know yet. Not Liam, not Chloe, not even Isabella. This child was mine, and I would protect it. Even if it meant fighting him with every last breath.

But how? How could a woman like me stand against the Vance empire, against a man who had stripped me of everything just now?

The answer never came.

A knock at the door startled me. I rose quickly, brushing my tears away before Isabella could see them. But it was not Isabella. It was the butler, his face uneasy.

“Madam,” he said softly, “Miss Chloe is here. Mr. Vance asked me to prepare the guest wing for her stay.”

My heart stopped. It was happening already.

I forced my voice steady. “Show her in.”

He hesitated, perhaps seeing the budding tears about to break forth. But he obeyed. A moment later, Chloe stepped into the doorway.

She looked radiant, glowing with her baby bump in her sexy low v-neckline maternity gown, her hand resting proudly on her stomach. Her lips curved into a smile that once had been kind, but now was sharp as a blade.

“Hello, Evelyn,” she said, her tone dripping with mockery. “I suppose you heard the news. Liam and I thought it’s best I move in sooner. After all, we are family now.”

“Right?” She pressed.

I wanted to claw that smile from her face. I wanted to scream until the walls shook. But instead, I smiled back. A cold, brittle smile.

“Welcome, Chloe,” I said, my voice even. “Make yourself at home.”

Because I knew one thing: if I showed her weakness, I would lose everything. Besides, they are doing this to break me. I didn’t have to let it seem like they had won.

That night, as the estate grew quiet, I lay in bed with Isabella asleep beside me. Her side belonged to Liam but I watched and waited, he didn’t come to lie with me. I needed someone to come keep me company, so I went after my daughter in the nursery.

While I laid here with her, cuddling her, I sobbed quietly, afraid to wake her up. Liam is really serious. He has gone to be with his new wife.

But then a woman chuckled, bursting into laughter all of a sudden.

I sat up quickly, listening closely to who it could be. It was Chloe laughing. I shrieked in shock. It could be me she's laughing at. The guest bedroom was only two rooms away, they know for sure I’ll be listening.

My left hand rested on Isabella and the right on my belly, my secret.

I dropped my head, crying profusely. There was no need to pretend to be strong here when I was breaking.

The laughter grew louder, getting more sarcastic. My chest burned with rage.

Don’t they know this is night or they think they are the only ones living here?

I lay in bed staring at the ceiling. My chest ached, but something inside me hardened. Crying wouldn’t save me. Begging wouldn’t save me. If Liam thought he had broken me, he was wrong.

I slipped out of bed, careful not to wake Isabella, and padded barefoot down the long corridor toward Liam’s study. The door was locked, as always, but I had lived in this house long enough to know where he kept the spare key— tucked behind the third vase on the shelf.

My hands shook as I turned the lock. This is risky, his most confidential zone. I could be caught but this isn’t the time to be scared.

The room was dark, I had to use my phone’s touch, covering some layers with my fingers to make it dim. His desk sat polished, orderly, with files stacked neatly in rows. But I wasn’t looking for files. I was looking for the black leather-bound diary I had seen him guard more fiercely than his phone.

I found it in the bottom drawer, hidden beneath contracts. My pulse quickened as I flipped through the pages. List of names. Phone numbers. Notes scrawled in his sharp handwriting. Business allies. Business rivals. I recognized some from dinners and news articles. Others I had never heard of.

But one name appeared more than once, circled with a thick red ink but the name was only in initials. ,

This must be the rival he hated most.

I copied the number onto a slip of paper, tucked it inside my blouse, then slid the diary back into place before locking the study behind me.

Back in my room, I sat on my bed, glaring at my phone. My finger hovered, trembling, as I thought of doing the next, best thing to do.

Texting him.

“I’m Evelyn, Liam Vance’s estranged wife. He sought an open marriage. I need your help.”

I tapped on sent. Then waited. The screen stayed dark for a moment.

One minute. Two. Five.

Then flickered with a reply.

“I’ve been waiting for this.”