MY HUSBAND'S SECRET SIDE CHICK

THE ASHES OF THE PAST

The air in my father's office felt thick enough to choke me. My father was still holding his phone, his face was completely pale, his fingers trembled against the glass screen. He looked like he had just seen a ghost or worse, a man who realized his executioner was walking down the hallway.

"What did Ethan say, Dad?" I demanded, my voice cutting through the deadly silence of the room. I took a step closer to his massive mahogany desk, my knuckles turned white as I squeezed the small wooden box Natalie had left behind. "Tell me right now. No more games or phone calls. What does he know?" Before my father could even part his lips to give another pathetic excuse, the heavy glass doors of his private office swung open. Ethan stood in the doorway. His hair was a mess, his breathing was heavy and his expensive suit jacket was unbuttoned, I had never seen my husband like this. The calm, collected, successful businessman I shared a bed with was completely gone. In his place was a dangerous, furious man whose eyes scanned the room until they locked onto me.

"Laura," he breathed out, his voice sounded like a low, raspy growl. He didn't look at my father, he didn't look at the luxury decor either. He just walked straight toward me, his heavy steps vibrated through the floorboards. "Thank God you're still here."

"Stop right there, Ethan," I snapped, raising my hand to keep him back. The pain in my chest flared up again, hot and sharp. "Don't you dare come near me. You lied to me for three months, you let me believe you were sleeping with my childhood best friend. You let me question my own sanity!"

"I did it to protect you!" Ethan yelled, his voice cracking with an emotion that shocked me. He stopped exactly three feet away, his chest heaving. "I swear to you Laura, I've never touched Natalie, I've never looked at another woman. But your father... your father was going to destroy everything if I told you the truth."

"My father?" I turned my head to look at the man who raised me. Thomas Sterling, a billionaire tycoon, a man feared in the corporate world, looked absolutely broken. He sank into his leather chair, covering his face with his hands.

"Ethan, please," my father groaned. "Don't do this, she's not ready. You promised me you weren't going to say word to her "

"The promise is dead, Thomas," Ethan hissed, his eyes snapped to my father with so much hatred. "You threatened my company, you threatened to ruin my family's logistics empire if I didn't keep Natalie away from Laura. But l don't care about the money anymore, I don't care about the business. I care about my wife and I'm not gonna let you ruin her life to hide your sins."

"Will somebody start talking!" I screamed, my patience was completely gone, the exhausting circle of hints and secrets had to end today. "What sins? What did Natalie find out fifteen years ago? Why did you force her to run away Dad?

Ethan turned back to me, the fury in his eyes softened into pity and that pity terrified me even more than his anger. He reached out, gently taking the small wooden box from my numb hands. He opened it, pulled out the old photograph and turned it over to look at the message: Laura must not know what happened that night.

"Your friendship with Natalie didn't end because of a school fight, Laura," Ethan said softly, his voice dropped to a painful whisper. "Natalie found a hidden safe , she found legal documents that proved your entire life was a lie."

"What lie?" My breath hitched. My heart slammed against my ribs like a trapped bird.

"You aren't a Sterling, Laura." Ethan delivered the blow cleanly. "Thomas Sterling and your mother are not your biological parents."

The room seemed to tilt. The ground beneath my feet felt like it was turning into water. I let out a short, breathless and humourless laugh. "That sounds ridiculous, I've seen my birth pictures. I have my childhood albums, I look just like my mother's old photos."

"That's because they chose a girl who shared your features," Ethan explained, his eyes locked into mine with desperate honesty.

"Fifteen years ago, there was a massive, horrific house fire in the old industrial district. A middle-class family was entirely wiped out. A mother, father and and their eldest daughter died in the flames. But the youngest daughter survived because she wasn't home that night. That surviving girl was Natalie."

I shook my head, backing away until my hips hit the edge of the desk. "No. No,no,no. What does a fire have to do with me?"

"The family that died in that fire... they had another daughter, Laura. A younger sister whom they had reported missing just two weeks before the fire," Ethan said, taking a step closer to catch me if fell. "Your adoptive parents' real daughter died of a sudden illness when she was a toddler. They couldn't accept the loss, they were desperate so they used their massive wealth and corrupt connections to buy a missing child from the black market to replace the daughter they lost. That missing child was you."

On hearing this, I felt the air leave my lungs. I looked at my father, he wasn't denying it. He was just sobbing silently, his shoulders shaking.

"You... you bought me? I whispered, the words tasted like ash on my tongue. "The woman I call Mom... the man I called Dad... you paid money for me? You stole me away from my real family?"

"We loved you Laura!" My father suddenly yelled, looking up with tears streaming down his face. "We gave you a perfect life, we protected you! When Natalie started asking questions fifteen years ago, when she realized the missing girl from the news matches your face, she threatened to go to the police. She was going to take you away from us! I had to protect our family, I paid her family's old legal guardians to force her out of the country. I didn't want to hurt her, I just wanted to keep you!"

"You didn't protect me," I said, my voice shockingly cold as a strange, dark numbness began to wash over my soul. The crying, heartbroken girl who had walked into his office was dying, replaced by something much sharper. "You stole my real identity. You let my biological parents die in a fire thinking their younger daughter was gone forever. And then you threatened my husband for three months to keep the secret buried." I looked at Ethan, the pieces of the puzzle were finally coming together. The late nights, the secret meetings with Mia, the distance in bed. He wasn't cheating on me, he was trying to find a way to save his company from my father's blackmail while trying to figure out how to tell his wife that her whole world was nothing but a manufactured lie.

"Natalie came back three months ago because she finally found proof that your father was the one who funded the illegal adoption ring," Ethan said, stepping right into my space and grabbing my hands. His palms were warm, the only real thing left in my universe. "She brought the evidence to me because she knew I loved you. She left the underwear in my car on purpose, Laura. She knew you would find it. She knew it would force me to stop hiding and bring everything to light because she was tired of waiting."

"So you all knew," I whispered, looking down at our joined hands. "Mia knew, Natalie knew, you knew, my parents knew. I was the only fool living in a fantasy world."

"I'm so sorry, Laura," Ethan choked out pulling me against his chest. "I wanted to handle it. I wanted to destroy his leverage before I told you."

For a second, I let myself lean into his familiar scent. I still loved him, the relief that he hadn't betrayed our vows was immense, but the anger inside me was growing into a raging monster. My marriage wasn't broken by a side chick; it was shattered by a billionaire's crime.

I gently but firmly pushed Ethan back, I looked at him then I looked at the man who had bought me like a piece of property.

"Where's Natalie's apartment, Ethan?" I asked, my voice was steady, stripped of all weakness.

"Laura, it's not safe there, your father has people tracking..."

"I don't care," I said, cutting him short. I held out my hand. "Give me the address, I have the key. I'm going to meet my real sister and then, we're going to burn this fake empire to the ground."

Ethan stared at me, his jaw tightening. A slow, proud smirk crossed his face, a dangerous glint appeared in his eyes. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper with an address written on it and placed it in my hand. "I'm coming with you," Ethan said, his voice dropped into a possessive, protective tone. "We'll do this together."

I didn't answer my father as he called out my name from his desk, I didn't look back at the luxury office. I turned on my heels and walked out. My heart pounded with a dangerous new purpose, the investigation was over. The game had officially changed, my parents thought they bought a submissive daughter and my husband thought he had to shield a fragile wife. They were both wrong.

I grabbed my phone as we reached the elevator, my fingers flying across the screen as I dialed a number I hadn't called in ten years, the line ringed once, twice and then a familiar voice answered. "Laura?" Natalie whispered from the other end, her voice trembling. "I have the key, Natalie," I said, watching the elevator doors slide open. "And I know everything, wait for me."

Before Natalie could reply, a loud smash echoed from the lobby downstairs. The emergency alarms in the building suddenly began to blare and the elevator lights flickered violently before plunging us into total darkness.