MY HUSBAND'S SECRET SIDE CHICK

THE BREACH OF TRUST

The ringing of Ethan's phone felt like a physical blow in the small, ruined apartment.

Mother.

The name flashed on the screen over and over, casting a pale, mocking glow across my husband's bloodless face. I looked at the phone, then at Natalie's bleeding lip and finally at Ethan. The man who had just torn open steel doors to save me suddenly looked paralyzed.

"Laura, look at me," Ethan pleaded, his voice cracking as he reached out for my hands. "I swear to God, I didn't know. I knew my mother was ruthless in the corporate world, but I never..."

"Don't touch me!" I screamed, backing away until my shoulders hit the cold wall. A heavy, suffocating wave of betrayal washed over me, hotter and sharper than before. "Your mother bought me? Your mother ordered the fire that killed my biological parents? My entire existence is crime scene, Ethan and your family held the matches!"

"Laura, please, we have to move!" Natalie gasped, grabbing my arm and pulling me toward the doorway. "The henchman said they were just the first wave. If the Blackwood Matriarch is involved, her private tactical team will be here in minutes. They won't just try to kidnap us, they'll erase us."

Ethan's eye darkened, the shock instantly hardening into a lethal, possessive focus. He ignored my rejection, stepping forward and grabbing both of us by the elbows. "You don't have to trust me right now Laura. You can hate me for the rest of your life if you want to, but I'm getting you out of here alive."

He didn't give me a choice, he practically dragged us down the rear emergency stairwell of the apartment complex, out into the dark alleyway where his SUV was parked. He shoved Natalie into the back seat and pushed me into the passenger side, slamming the door before I could fight back.

The engine roared to life, Ethan threw the vehicle into reverse, spinning the tires against the gravel just as two sleek, black sedans with tinted windows blocked the main entrance of the alley.

"Hold on!" Ethan roared. He slammed his foot on the accelerator. Instead of turning away, he drove straight toward the oncoming cars. My breath caught in my throat, Natalie screamed from the back seat. Right before impact, Ethan jerked the steering wheel, mounting the concrete sidewalk and squeezing the SUV through a narrow gap between a brick wall and a lead sedan. The sound of metal scraping against metal screeched through the night, but we broke free, launching onto the main highway.

The two black sedans turned instantly, their headlights blinding in our rearview mirror as they chased us

"They're getting closer!" I yelled, gripping the dashboard. My adrenaline was pumping so hard through my veins that I could taste copper.

"They won't catch us," Ethan said, his hands gripped the steering wheel so firmly his knuckles turned white. He flicked a switch on the console, engaging the SUV's twin-turbo engine. The vehicle surged forward, weaving violently through the midnight traffic like a predator on the hunt.

"Where are we going?" Natalie cried out, clutching the headrest.

"We can't go to the police! If your father and the Blackwood family control the city's elite, the police will just hand us back to them!"

"We aren't going to the police," Ethan said, his jaw tightened. "And we aren't going to my family estate. I have a private penthouse in the old financial district. The deed is under a shell company my mother doesn't know about. It has an independent biometric security system. Its the only place in this city where they can't touch you."

"You mean the only place where you can trap us?" I snapped, turning my head to glare at him. The pain in my chest turned into pure anger. "How do I know this isn't another trap? How do I know you aren't just delivering me to your mother to save your own corporate empire?

Ethan violently swerved the SUV to avoid a transport truck, sending one of our pursuers spinning into a guardrail behind us. He temporarily broke their line of sight, pulling into a dark, underground parking garage beneath a massive, abandoned glass skyscraper. He killed the headlights, plunging us into total shadows.

The remaining black sedan roared past the garage entrance on the streets above, its sirens fading into the distance. The silence inside the SUV was heavy and agonizing. Ethan turned off the engine, but he didn't unlock the doors. He turned his body toward me in the darkness, his eyes wild, burning with a raw, desperate passion that made my heart jump

"Listen to me Laura, I built my logistics empire from the ground up so I would never have to rely on my mother's dirty money. The moment I married you, my life became yours. If my mother set that fire, I'll personally strip her off the Blackwood name and hand her over to the executioners. I don't care about my legacy. I don't care about the billions, I care about you."

"You hid things from me, Ethan," I whispered, tears finally burning the edge of my eyes, though I refused to let them fall. "You let me feel lonely. You let me feel abandoned for three months."

"Because I was a fool," he confessed, his hand flying out to cradle the side of my face. His palm was burning hot against my cold skin and despite my anger, a betraying spark of longing flared up inside me. "Your father threatened to frame you for corporate espionage if I spoke up, he had fake documents ready to ruin your life. I was trying to buy time to destroy him legally. I was trying to keep your hands clean, Laura. But l swear on my life, I never stopped loving you and I always will."

Natalie leaned forward from the back seat, placing a hand on my shoulder. "Laura... he's telling the truth about one thing. When I brought the adoption proof to him three months ago, he wanted to kill Thomas Sterling that very night. I was the one who stopped him, I told him we needed a clean and flawless plan or our father would us disappear like he did fifteen years ago."

I looked between my husband and my long-lost sister, the web of lies spun by our parents was suffocating, but looking at Ethan's fierce and protective expression, I realized something. He wasn't the enemy, the real monsters were the ones sitting in the luxury mansions, pulling the strings of our lives like we were their puppets.

"Fine," I said, my voice hardening as I made my decision. I reached out and unlocked my own door. "We'll go to your penthouse, but we aren't hiding there forever, Ethan. If your mother and my adoptive father think they can clean up their past by hunting us down, they're deeply mistaken."

Ethan curved his lips into a dark, dangerous smile, the Alpha in him recognized the shift in me. I was no longer the fragile wife he needed to shield, I was a woman ready for war.

"That's my queen," he murmured, he brushed his thumb over my lower lip before he shifted the SUV back into motion. Ten minutes later, we ascended the private elevator directly into his hidden penthouse. The doors opened into a massive, minimalist space overlooking the glowing city skyline. But the moment the elevator doors parted, a chill ran down my spine.

The penthouse wasn't empty, sitting in a grand velvet armchair facing the elevator, sipping a glass of dark red wine, was an elegant woman with perfectly styled silver hair. She wore a tailored crimson dress and her cold calculating eyes filled with a malicious warmth as she looked at us. It was the Blackwood Matriarch, Ethan's mother.

Standing behind her were four heavily armed guards, their rifles aimed directly at our chests.

"You always did underestimate me, Ethan," the Matriarch said, her voice smooth like velvet and sharp like glass. She set her wine glass down in the glass table. "Did you really think a shell company could hide from the woman who built the Blackwood fortune?"

Ethan immediately stepped in front of me and Natalie, his hands moving towards his waistband, but the click of four safety levers turning off cut him short.

"Don't be reckless my dear boy," the Matriarch smiled, her gaze shifted from Ethan and locked onto my face. "I didn't come here to kill you, Ethan. I came for what belongs to me. Fifteen years ago, I sold a valuable asset to the Sterling family and tonight I'm here to repossess it."