LOGINAlice POV“I hid another message from Manson, Sylvester,” I say, the confession ripping out of my throat before I can lose my nerve.“When did it come?” Sylvester asks, his dark eyes fixing onto mine with a cold, terrifying stillness.“Yesterday,” I whisper, my hands shaking against my swollen stomach. “He offered to trade the auction painting back for a private meeting with me. I deleted it, retrieved it, and deleted it again.”Alice confessed the second contact from Manson before the sun even rose over the city skyline.Sylvester listened to every single word without the violent, screaming explosion she had fully expected.The heavy, suffocating quiet that followed his lack of rage was infinitely worse than any shouted anger.He did not accuse her of direct betrayal or pull his hand away from her skin; he simply asked why she had kept it hidden from him in the first place.The raw, honest answer—her deep fear of his volatile reaction, her terrifying fear of becoming the ultimate pro
Alice POV“Are you certain you can sit through three hours of hostile board questions without breaking, Alice?”“I am carrying three of your heirs, Sylvester,” I reply, my voice steady despite the rapid pounding of my heart. “I can handle a room full of greedy executives in expensive suits.”“Good,” he says, his broad hand coming down over mine on the leather seat of the limousine. “Because today they try to strip everything from us.”The board calls an emergency session at the main corporate tower before noon.Rumors of our sham marriage, the leaked press stories, and the vulnerable floating shares have finally reached a critical mass.Sylvester enters the massive glass boardroom with me directly at his side, presenting a picture of flawless, united strength to our enemies.Every aggressive question directed at me about the timeline of our relationship is answered with smooth, calm precision.Every sneaky attempt by Daniela’s remaining proxy members to isolate Sylvester and vote on a
Alice POV“Get your hands off me, Sylvester!”“Make me, Alice,” Sylvester growls, his broad shoulders pinning me back against the cold wooden wall of his private study.“You think you can just order me around like one of your corporate employees?” I gasp out, my chest heaving violently as my hands slam flat against his chest.“I am keeping you alive,” he rasps, stepping so close his body completely overlaps mine, his dark eyes burning into my soul. “And if that means locking you in this room with me until Manson is six feet under, then that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”Desire returns with the raw force of something long denied between us. In the middle of tense strategy meetings and heavy security briefings, the air between Alice and Sylvester remains dangerously charged. This late, furious argument about my restricted movements ends with my back pressed hard against the study wall and his mouth just a fraction of a breath from mine. My pregnancy makes full, desperate release phys
Alice POV“Sell the main logistics subsidiary before eight this morning,” Sylvester orders into his phone, his voice flat, icy, and completely dead of any human warmth. “I don't care about the immediate tax loss. Wipe their access off the server right now.”“Sylvester, that’s twenty percent of your liquid capital,” I say, stepping into his office as my stomach tightens with fresh anxiety.“It stops Daniela’s proxy group from leveraging our supply lines,” he replies, ending the call without looking up from his glowing screens. “I am burning their ground before they can set a single foot on it.”Sylvester launches a quiet, ruthless counteroffensive before the financial markets even open for the day.Hostile corporate subsidiaries are liquidated in rapid succession, private investigators are paid in cash to dig up dirt on every traitor, and every board member who has spoken too freely to the press finds their digital clearance revoked instantly.I watch the man I live with become somethi
Alice POV“Are you really locking me inside this tower again, Sylvester?”“I am keeping you and our three babies alive, Alice,” Sylvester snaps back, his voice tight and heavy as he stares at the security screens on his desk.“You can’t just turn this penthouse into a prison every time something goes wrong!” I yell, my throat aching as my hands clench into tight fists at my sides.“The auction painting was stolen from right under our noses, Alice,” he says, turning to face me with dark, furious eyes. “Whoever took it bypassed a system that cost millions. You are not stepping one foot outside this building without six armed men on your hip.”I wrap my arms around my heavily swollen stomach, feeling the babies kick fiercely against my palms.The theft of the auction painting turns every quiet hour inside the penthouse into a desperate, silent search for answers. Sylvester orders a complete internal investigation, refusing to let me leave the tower without a full security detail surround
Alice POV“Manson sent another message through an anonymous courier at the charity gala, and Daniela is working directly with him behind your back.”“Keep talking,” Sylvester says, his voice dropping into a flat, dangerous register that makes the temperature in the room plummet degree by degree.“I didn’t tell you immediately because I was scared you would lock me down even tighter,” I rush out, my chest heaving as my hands shake against my stomach. “Manson knows about the secondary trust, and Daniela is the one feeding him our internal board schedules.”When I finally finish spilling every single hidden detail, the terrifying silence in the executive study lasts long enough to become its own brutal form of judgment.Sylvester doesn't yell, and he doesn't throw anything across the room. He simply stands behind his mahogany desk, his dark eyes turning entirely black with suppressed fury.Then he moves.Within the hour, the entire security protocol of the penthouse is overhauled with ru







