LOGINAudrey sat alone in her new, expensive apartment. She was lost in thoughts. Alura knew her ghost husband as Lou, yet she worked for Lucius Hunt who is actually her husband. And Lucius's grandmother calls him Lou. This was a very short, very dangerous bridge. If Alura ever connected those dots, the entire fake marriage would collapse. Audrey would lose her new status, and the rich lifestyle she deserved. She needed to move faster to lock down her position and figure out exactly what Alura knew.Audrey picked up her phone and dialed Alura’s number. She suggested they meet for coffee in the afternoon since it was weekend.......Moments later, Alura sat in a booth near the back, staring at her latte. When Audrey walked in, she wore a designer coat and carried a bag that looked really expensive.Audrey slid into the booth opposite Alura. She immediately dropped her shoulders and let out a long, shaky sigh. She began her performance."Alura, I don't know what to do," Audrey said. Her voi
Alura shut down her computer. She stood up and slipped her arms into her jacket, grabbing her bag from the chair. She walked toward Lucius's office. The door was open.Lucius stood beside his desk, arranging a stack of files. He did not wear his suit jacket, and his tie hung loose."I'm done with the compliance reports, sir," Alura said from the doorway. "Goodnight."Lucius stopped moving. He placed the folders down on the desk and looked up. He stared at her for a long second before speaking."Are you aware Ethan was fired this morning?"Alura froze. Her eyes widened in genuine shock. She shook her head. "No. I wasn't."Lucius walked around the edge of his desk. He didn't stop until he was standing just two feet away from her. The physical distance between them vanished, leaving a thick, pulsing tension in the air.He looked down at her face, his jaw tight. "Why are you married to him, Alura? Why stay with a man who grabs you on the street and refuses to let go?"Alura looked away. H
Ethan was sitting in his small, cramped cubicle on the fourth floor of the Hunt Group building, staring blindly at a spreadsheet on his computer monitor.Weeks had passed since the humiliating encounter in the underground parking garage. He spent the last two weeks sending apologies on the internal company message boards, and months of being kept thirty six floors far away from the executive floor where Alura worked.Every time Ethan tried to find an excuse to visit the upper floors, he was repeatedly refused, all because Lucuis had given a strict order to confine him within the fourth floor.Ethan felt enraged. How dare Lucuis interfere. The man was a CEO, not a bodyguard. The strict warning from Human Resources was supposed to scare Ethan into submission, but it had only stoked his anger. He knew exactly what was happening. Lucuis was keeping Alura to himself, blocking anyone else from getting close. Ethan could not stand it. He felt a bitter, ugly sense of entitlement, he dated her
Since Hilda got the full footage of the charity gala, she rewound the video and watched it over and over again. It was not just the dance that made her blood run hot. It was the way Lucius looked at the girl. He looked at her with soo much intimacy, it was suspicious.Hilda had spent years trying to get Lucius to look at her with even a small genuine smile, yet he always looked right through Hilda, treating her like a mild inconvenience. But in the video, his focus on Alura was devastatingly real, and almost possessive.Hilda grabbed her phone. "Send him in."A moment later, her office doors opened. The young CEO who had publicly humiliated himself at the auction walked in. Mr Drew looked nervous, holding his briefcase tightly. He had lost his position as CEO the next morning after the gala, impeached by his own board of directors for the live bidding stunt and reckless spending, even his own grandfather couldn't save him. Since he was currently broke, Hilda had offered to pay him
Abigail sat on the edge of her bed for a long time. The clock on her nightstand glowed in the dark, ticking past midnight. She stared at the closed door of her bedroom, her hands gripping the thin silk of her nightgown.Her mind was spinning in circles. Was she about to make a big mistake, or was this the only choice left. After all she was the one who pushed him into a corner, and challenged him when he had thought she was bluffing. *Come to my room. When you're ready.*The words echoed in her head. Her stomach tied itself into nervous knots.She was twenty-five years, yet she had never been with a man. She had spent her youth hiding from her father’s loan sharks, shrinking into the background, trying to remain invisible. She had no sexual experience whatsoever. She had no idea what she was doing or what she was going to do. What if she was too awkward? What if she embarrassed herself by being coy and clumsy? She worried Grey would take one look at her hesitation and turn her away
A gossip started spreading the next day at Hunt Group.It quickly escalated through the lower floors like a virus. It began in the break rooms and echoed in the elevator banks. By ten o'clock, the rumors had already gotten to the fortieth floor.People were saying CEO Hunt was finally thawing, and his secretary was the reason. The whispers claimed Alura was getting special treatment. They said she spent far too much time alone with the CEO behind closed doors. And they pointed to the charity gala, ignoring the fact that she attended only as an assistant, and twisted it into something scandalous.Alura did not notice the stares at first. She was focused on her screen, going through her schedules. But when she walked to the break room to refill her water bottle, the low chatter stopped the second she stepped through the doorway. Three junior executives looked away quickly, staring at their phones.Alura frowned, filling her bottle and walking back to her desk.Ten minutes later, Emily h
It was finally Friday and Alura had made it through the entire week without being fired, without crying in the bathroom, and without poisoning Lucius' coffee.... though the last one had crossed her mind twice. She was sitting at her desk outside Lucius' office, still in one piece.While sorting th
"My daughter lives here! This whole floor should be grateful. My girl is going places, You think someone like her would just live anywhere?" Alura who just got back from work already tired and frustrated froze. The yelling was coming from her floor. She heard it before she even reached her fl
The elevator doors slid open.Patricia became tensed and muttered. "He's here."Even though Patricia had warned Alura repeatedly, in the tone of someone describing a natural disaster, still warnings and reality were two completely different things, and nothing had prepared Alura for the moment Luci
"Hmm, this is definitely a cheap knockoff," Lucius said casually. "The original design costs about five thousand dollars. Yours looks like the fake version they sell online for two hundred." He thought that, even though her ring looked exactly like his in every detail. It might be possible to be a







