Chapter Five

OLIVIA'S POV

The flight back to New York felt like hours and seconds at the same time. Too long and too short. Giving me too much time to think and not enough time to prepare.

Ethan worked on his laptop the whole time. Making calls, sending emails. Running his company from thirty thousand feet like it was nothing.

I tried to sleep but couldn't. I tried to eat but my stomach was in knots. I tried to read but the words blurred together.

All I could think about was facing my mother. About walking into her house with a husband she didn't know existed. About watching her face when she realized I'd actually done it.

I'd actually gotten married to someone else.

The car Ethan had arranged picked us up at the airport. It was black and expensive. The kind of car my mother would approve of even if she hated everything else.

"Are you ready?" Ethan asked as we pulled up to my mother's house in the Upper East Side.

"No." I looked at the familiar brownstone. "But I'm doing it anyway."

He took my hand. The touch was unexpectedly warm.

"Remember the story. We met six months ago. Fell in love. Kept it secret. You caught Marcus cheating and ran to me. We eloped because we couldn't wait."

"We met at an art gallery. You don't actually like art but you're learning. My favorite flower is peonies. You take your coffee black with two sugars when you think no one's watching."

"Perfect." He squeezed my hand.

"Just follow my lead. I've been dealing with difficult families my whole life."

The car stopped. The driver opened our door. This was it, no more planning. No more practicing. Just the performance of our lives.

We walked up the steps together. My hand in his. The ring from the Vegas vending machine still on my finger leaving green marks on my skin.

I rang the doorbell. Heard footsteps inside.

The door opened. Mrs. Chen's housekeeper's eyes went wide when she saw me. It went wider when she saw Ethan. It went the widest when she saw our joined hands.

"Miss Olivia. Your mother is expecting you."

"I know." I stepped inside. Pulled Ethan with me.

"This is my husband, Ethan Kane."

I heard her sharp intake of breath. Watched her try to hide her shock and fail.

This was going to spread through the staff in seconds. Would reach my mother before we did.

Good. Let her know we were here. Let her have a few minutes to prepare for the bomb we were about to drop.

We followed the housekeeper through the house I'd grown up in. We past the living room where I'd learned to play piano. Past the study where my father used to work before he died. Past all the memories of a life that felt like it belonged to someone else now.

The dining room doors were closed. I could hear voices inside. My mother. And someone else.

My stomach dropped. She'd invited other people. Of course she had. This wasn't going to be a private conversation. It was going to be a spectacle.

The housekeeper opened the doors. I took a breath. Squeezed Ethan's hand. Felt him squeeze back.

Then we walked in together.

My mother sat at the head of the table. Perfectly dressed. Perfectly composed. The picture of elegance and control.

But she wasn't alone. Marcus sat to her right. Looking uncomfortable and guilty and like he'd rather be anywhere else.

And Sophia sat to her left. Wearing my mother's approval like a crown. Smiling like she'd already won.

They all looked up when we entered. All three of them. My mother's face went cold. Marcus's went pale. Sophia's smile dropped completely.

I stood there in the doorway. Hand in hand with a man they'd never met. Wearing a cheap ring and yesterday's clothes and the biggest lie I'd ever told.

And I smiled.

"Mother. Marcus. Sophia." My voice came out clear. Strong.

"I'd like you to meet my husband.”

The silence that followed my introduction was deafening.

My mother's face had gone completely still. Not shocked. Just frozen in that way she did when something happened that she couldn't control. When the world dared to move without her permission.

Marcus looked like he'd been slapped. His face was pale. His hands gripped the edge of the table so hard his knuckles turned white.

And Sophia. Sophia's smile had completely disappeared. Replaced by something cold and calculating as her eyes moved between me and Ethan like she was trying to solve a puzzle.

"Your husband." My mother's voice came out flat. Empty.

"Olivia, what is this nonsense?"

"It's not nonsense, Mother." I held Ethan's hand tighter. Drew strength from the warmth of his palm against mine.

"This is Ethan Kane. My husband. We got married yesterday in Las Vegas."

"Las Vegas." She said it like it was a disease.

"You married a complete stranger in Las Vegas the night before your wedding to Marcus?"

"He's not a stranger." The lie came easier than I expected.

"We've been seeing each other for six months. Since last spring. We met at an art gallery in Chelsea."

"Six months?" Sophia leaned forward. Her voice was sugar-sweet venom.

"You've been cheating on Marcus for six months and never told anyone?"

"I wasn't cheating." I looked at Marcus. Watched him flinch under my gaze.

"Unlike some people, I actually ended my relationship before starting a new one."

Marcus's face went red.

"Olivia, we need to talk. Privately. This is clearly some kind of misunderstanding."

"There's no misunderstanding." Ethan spoke for the first time. His voice was calm, controlled. The voice of someone who was used to boardrooms and business deals.

"Olivia is my wife. Legally. We have the marriage certificate to prove it."

"And who exactly are you?" My mother's eyes raked over him. Taking in his expensive suit. His confident posture. Trying to place him.

"I've never heard your name before."

"Ethan Kane. I run Kane Technologies." He said it simply. No bragging.

"Perhaps you've heard of it."

I watched my mother's expression change just slightly. Kane Technologies was one of the biggest tech companies in the country. Worth billions. Even she couldn't ignore that.

"So you're rich." Sophia's voice dripped with disdain.

"Is that supposed to impress us? You think you can just buy your way into our family?"

"I'm not trying to buy anything." Ethan's hand never left mine.

"I married Olivia because I love her. Not because of her family connections."

The word love hit me harder than I expected. We'd practiced this. Rehearsed the story. But hearing him say it out loud in front of my family made it feel almost real.

"This is ridiculous." Marcus stood up. His chair scraped loudly against the floor.

"Olivia, stop this game. Whatever you're trying to prove, you've made your point. Now let's discuss this like adults."

"There's nothing to discuss." I stayed seated. Stayed calm.

"I caught you in bed with my sister the night before our wedding. There's no coming back from that."

"It was a mistake!" His voice rose.

"I was drunk. It didn't mean anything. You can't throw away three years over one mistake."

"One mistake?" I laughed. It sounded bitter even to my own ears.

"Marcus, I walked in on you with your tongue down my sister's throat. In our bed. That's not a mistake. That's a choice."

Sophia shifted in her seat. For the first time, she looked uncomfortable.

"Olivia, you're being dramatic. Marcus and I were just talking and things got out of hand. It's not like we've been having an affair."

"Weren't you?" I looked at her directly. "Because it seemed pretty practiced for something that just got out of hand."

The dining room fell silent again. The kind of silence that pressed down on your chest and made it hard to breathe.

My mother cleared her throat.

"Regardless of what happened between you and Marcus, this marriage is clearly a rash decision made in anger. It can be annulled. We'll get lawyers. Fix this mess quietly before it damages both families' reputations."

"I'm not annulling anything." The words came out stronger than I felt.

"I love Ethan. I married him because I want to spend my life with him. Not because I was angry or trying to prove something."

"You expect us to believe that?" My mother's voice was ice.

"That you've been secretly dating this man for six months and never mentioned him once? That you just happened to marry him the night you caught Marcus cheating? It's too convenient, Olivia."

"Believe what you want." I met her gaze without flinching.

"It doesn't change the fact that I'm married. To Ethan, not Marcus."

"This is insane." Marcus was pacing now. "You're throwing away everything we built together. Three years, Olivia. Three years of our lives."

"Three years of my life pretending to be someone I'm not." The truth spilled out before I could stop it.

"Three years of giving up my dreams because you said they weren't appropriate. Three years of molding myself into the perfect fiancée while you were sleeping with my sister."

"I said it was a mistake!"

"And I said I don't care!" My voice finally rose.

"I don't care if it was a mistake. I don't care if you were drunk. I don't care if you're sorry. I caught you with Sophia and that was the last straw."

Sophia stood up.

"Don't act like you're innocent in all this. You were never right for Marcus anyway. Always too focused on your little hobbies. Too boring, too plain. He needed someone with passion. Someone who could actually satisfy him."

The words were designed to hurt. And they did. Even knowing she was just being cruel, even knowing she was wrong, the words still stung.

But before I could respond, Ethan's hand tightened on mine. Not painfully. Just enough to remind me he was there.

"Actually," he said quietly,

"I think we should sit down for dinner. Mrs. Chen went to the trouble of preparing this meal. It would be rude not to eat."

My mother looked startled. Like she'd forgotten there was supposed to be a dinner.

"I don't think—"

"I insist." Ethan pulled out my chair. Waited for me to sit. Then took the seat beside me.

"After all, we're family now. We should get to know each other."

The tension was so thick I could taste it. But one by one, they sat back down.

The housekeeper brought out the first course. Soup that smelled delicious but didn't taste so good.

We ate in silence for a few minutes. The only sound was the sound of the cutlery hitting the plates. It was the most uncomfortable meal of my life.