The Billionaire‘s Convenient Wife

Sienna's pov The airport terminal was humming with the steady rumble of rolling suitcases and low chatter. I gripped my boarding pass, staring at the gate monitor. This flight to London was supposed to seal the international deal I had spent three years building. I had given up everything to become the perfect Montgomery daughter. I lived as a polished, reliable, and obedient woman who put her personal dreams in a drawer for the sake of the family empire and my upcoming marriage to Ethan Kensington. My phone vibrated violently against my palm. A security notification flashed across the screen from my Range Rover, parked in the executive lot three floors below. I frowned and tapped the screen. I thought someone had smashed a window or tried to pick the lock. The live footage loaded, grainy at first, then it became sharp. My breathing stopped. Ethan sat in the backseat of my car, Lydia sat across his lap. His fingers were tangled deep in her hair, pulling her down toward him. Her arms wrapped around his neck as they kissed with an effortless, practiced familiarity. They looked like two people who had done this a hundred times before. My chest caved in. The noise of the airport faded into a dull, underwater roar. "Do you actually like her better than me, Ethan?" Lydia asked. Her voice came through the phone speaker, soft and mocking. "Tell me the truth." Ethan pulled back slightly, his thumb tracing her lower lip. "You know I do." "Why?" she whispered. "She has everything." "You are warmer," Ethan said, his voice dripping with easy affection. "You are excited about me. Being with Sienna always felt like being trapped in a cold business arrangement. She is empty." I stood frozen in the middle of the crowded concourse. My hands stopped shaking. My heart did not explode. Instead, a terrifying silence settled over my entire body. I stared at the screen, watched them kiss again, and then I pressed the save button. The video stored neatly into my camera roll. I turned around, walked away from the gate, and left the airport. I did not go to Ethan's apartment. I did not text him. I drove straight back to the Montgomery estate, park entrance gravel crunching beneath my tires. I stepped through the grand front doors and found my family scattered across the formal living room. "Sienna?" my mother, Vivian, asked, raising a hand to her silk collar. "What are you doing here? You should be on a plane." "Everyone needs to sit down," I said. My voice was dangerously calm. "Now." Richard, my stepfather, set his glass of whiskey on the mahogany table with a sharp click. "Do not use that tone in this house, Sienna." Ethan walked out from the hallway, casually adjusting his cuffs. Lydia followed right behind him, wearing a soft pastel sweater that made her look fragile. They had made it home before me. "What is going on?" Ethan asked, stepping toward me with a fake smile. "Did something happen with the flight?" I walked to the heavy glass table in the center of the room. I took out my phone, laid it flat on the dark wood, and pressed play. The audio filled the quiet room instantly. Ethan's voice echoed off the high ceilings, describing how empty I was, followed by the wet, breathless sounds of Lydia laughing against his mouth. The room erupted, but the anger did not fall where it belonged. "Turn that off!" Vivian yelled, rushing to Lydia's side instantly. She wrapped her arms around Lydia, who started to sob into her mother's shoulder. "Sienna, you are making a scene over nothing!" "Over nothing?" I choked out, the illusion shattering around me. "He cheated on me with my sister!" "You drove him away, Sienna," Ethan said, stepping back with his arms crossed. He did not look guilty at all. He looked annoyed. "You were always distant. You treated our relationship like a corporate merger. Lydia actually cared about me." "I never meant to hurt you, Sienna," Lydia sobbed, hiding her face in our mother's chest. "It just happened. We could not stop it." I turned to Richard, waiting for him to unleash his famous rage on the man who had disgraced our family. Instead, Richard stared at the phone screen with a cold, calculating expression. "This alliance between the Montgomerys and the Kensingtons cannot fall apart. The merger depends on this marriage." "I am aware," I said through clutched teeth. "Ethan is gone. We will handle the press release tomorrow." "Ethan is not gone," Richard replied smoothly. He looked at Lydia, then at Ethan. "The engagement will be transferred. To Lydia." The air left my lungs. "What did you just say?" "The family needs this union," Richard said, his tone as indifferent as if he were discussing quarterly earnings. "Lydia will marry Ethan. It fixes the problem and keeps the Kensington capital in our accounts." "She took my fiancé!" I screamed, the control finally breaking. "You cannot give her my life!" "It is already decided," Richard said. He turned to me and held out his hand. "Give me the ring, Sienna." "No," I whispered, stepping back. "No!" Richard moved faster than I expected. He grabbed my left wrist with a iron grip, squeezing until my fingers went numb. He unclasped my hand and pulled the diamond off my finger with a harsh jerk. Pain shot up my arm, but the shame hurt worse. I looked at my mother. "Mom, stop him. Please." Vivian looked down at her polished nails and said nothing. Richard stepped over to Lydia and slipped the diamond onto her left hand. It fit perfectly. Lydia wiped her tears away and looked up at Ethan with a triumphant smile. "I am going to destroy you," I rasped, looking at every single person in that room. "I will take my father's shares, I will go to the board, and I will expose every single thing you have done to the press by tomorrow morning." Richard smiled. It was a dark, pitying smile. "You will do no such thing," Richard said, pulling a folded legal document from his inner suit pocket. "Your father left a specific clause in his trust. It gave me temporary full authority over your inheritance until your thirtieth birthday." I stared at him, my blood running cold. "You are lying." "I transferred your liquid accounts an hour ago," Richard continued, stepping closer until he towered over me. "I suspended your shares. I revoked your access to all family properties, including your car and your apartment. You have zero funds, Sienna. You have no position." He reached out and patted my cheek with cold fingers. "You came home thinking you were the Montgomery heiress," Richard whispered, his voice echoing in the dead silence of the room. "You should have realized by now that you are nothing without us.”