Rejected By My Ex, I Married A Hidden Billionaire

Chapter 17 The 48-Hour Countdown

The drive back to the mansion was eerily quiet. The engine hummed low beneath us, and my teeth chattered, a faint, steady click, even though Ethan had wrapped his suit jacket tight around my shoulders long before. My hands still shook, Jake’s final scream ringing on a loop in my ears. Ethan never let go of my hand once, his warm palm cupped around mine, tucking our clasped hands into the pocket of his overcoat like he could shield me from the mess we’d just walked into, if only he held on tight enough.

He didn’t say a word until the heavy oak front door clicked shut behind us, sealing the rest of the world out. He pulled me straight into his arms, his chin resting on the top of my head, and I could feel his heart hammering fast against my chest—the same cold, coiling fear under his skin that I felt thrumming in my own bones.

“I should have seen this coming,” he muttered, his voice tight with frustration. “Liam never does anything halfway. The contract leak, Jake… all of it was just a distraction.”

Before I could reply, his phone blared from his pocket, his assistant’s name flashing across the screen. He hit speaker, and that cold, sharp CEO mask slid back into place in an instant. But what his assistant said turned my blood to ice.

Liam hadn’t just handed Jake a folder full of lies. He’d spent three months forging financial documents, altering the company’s quarterly reports to make it look like Ethan had hidden millions in losses from the board. That morning, he’d sent the falsified files straight to the financial regulatory authority, along with a formal complaint. Worse, he’d stolen the confidential plans for Hale Group’s biggest waterfront development project, and was hours away from selling them to our biggest competitor.

“The deal’s scheduled to be signed at 9 a.m. Monday,” his assistant said, her voice shaking. “That’s the exact same time the regulatory announcement goes live. The second the market opens, the stock will crash. We have 48 hours, max.”

Ethan hung up, his jaw clenched so hard I could hear the faint grind of his teeth. He turned to me, a flash of panic in his eyes before it softened, his voice flat and unyielding when he spoke. “You need to leave. I’ll have my pilot fly you to the cabin in Aspen tonight. You don’t have to be here for any of this.”

I stepped forward, my hand flat against his chest, and looked him dead in the eye. “No,” I said, my voice steady, not a single tremor in it. “I’m not leaving. I didn’t stand up to Jake in front of all those reporters just to run away when things get hard. This is my fight too. We’re in this together, remember?”

He stared at me for a long, heavy beat, then leaned down and kissed me hard, like he was pouring every ounce of his fear, his love, his gratitude into it. When he pulled back, my phone buzzed in my pocket.

A text from an unknown number, sent straight to me.

You thought you beat Jake? You just stepped right into the real trap I set. Monday morning, the company will be gone. And you? You’ll go down with Ethan. Every last part of you.

Ethan read it over my shoulder, his arm around my waist tightening until I was pressed flush against him.

We had 48 hours. 48 hours to stop Liam, to save the company, to hold on to everything we had.

And we didn’t even know where to start.