For three years, she turned Axel Farrell into Silicon Valley’s perfect family man—only to discover he was secretly betraying her. When Axel freezes her accounts, brands her mentally incompetent, and tries to have her imprisoned, she realizes their marriage was never love. But his greatest mistake was underestimating the genius behind his empire. Now she’s joining his biggest rival—and coming for everything.
Ayla kept her eyes on the road, but her peripheral vision was hyper-aware of the man sitting behind her. She glanced at the rearview mirror. Cassius had his eyes open now, staring down at a sleek black tablet, his thumb swiping through complex financial charts. His jawline was rigid, his expression unreadable. In the passenger…
“You are my driver,” he said, his tone carrying the absolute finality of someone who had never been argued with successfully. “You stay with the car until my meeting is finished.” Ayla stared at him. “You can’t be serious. I have places to be.” Cassius didn’t bother arguing. He simply tilted his head toward Marcus.…
Cassius stood a foot away, his breathing perfectly steady. He stared at her in the dim light. The rage in his eyes had dissolved, replaced by a burning, focused curiosity. “That was a very professional threat, Miss Joyce,” he murmured, his voice echoing softly in the stairwell. “You handle the press like a shark.” Ayla…
“Gilliam.” The voice was cold and mechanical. It wasn’t Cassius. It was Vance. “Vance, listen to me,” Ayla said, breathless and urgent. “I need your tech team to scrub that Twitter video immediately. Corrupt the metadata, issue a copyright strike – do whatever it takes to pull it offline.” Vance let out a dry, humorless…
“Shut your mouth, Kristal,” Axel snapped, his voice ragged and unhinged. “If you ruin this dinner tonight, the board will fire us both. Just smile and look pretty.” Ayla stopped the cart in the shadows just outside the door. She reached into her pocket and withdrew a small black USB drive. She crouched beside the…
She unzipped it and stood. She walked into the cavernous walk-in closet without glancing once at the racks of haute couture gowns, silk blouses, and cashmere coats Axel had bought to dress up his perfect doll. She reached into the very back and pulled out five pairs of basic slacks, a few plain cotton button-downs,…
“If you walk out that door, you are dead to me!” he screamed at her back. “You will never step foot in this house again! I will make sure you starve in the streets!” Ayla stopped in the open doorway. The cold morning wind lifted her hair. She didn’t turn around. “I hope your stock…
Jared hesitated. “Sir, the board is demanding an emergency meeting. The SEC investigators are in the lobby. We need you at headquarters-“ Axel swept his arm across the vanity. Dozens of crystal perfume bottles shattered against the hardwood floor, flooding the room with the suffocating scent of floral perfume. “If you don’t find my wife,”…
“Hack the city’s traffic cameras!” he screamed, his chest heaving. “Tear the grid apart. Find her!” Ayla sat in the back of the cab as her breathing slowly steadied. She got off near Central Park and walked into a small, dimly lit tea room tucked behind a bookstore. Chloe was already there, sitting in a…
When he saw Ayla, the violence in his expression dissolved, replaced by dark, predatory amusement. He took a slow sip of whiskey and walked toward her, his footsteps soundless on the thick carpet. His eyes dragged slowly over the oversized, ridiculous white chef’s jacket she was wearing. “You broke into a highly secure corporate fortress,”…