LOGIN~ Thea's POVThe cold was the first thing she had noticed.It wasn't just the ambient chill of the massive master suite; it was a deep, physical absence that seemed to entirely consume the mattress. I slowly opened my eyes, the heavy, bruised ache in my ribs momentarily forgotten as I stared at the pristine, completely undisturbed charcoal sheets on the other side of the bed.He hadn't come home.I lay perfectly still for a long time, listening to the suffocating, absolute silence of the limestone estate. The digital clock on the nightstand glared a harsh, unapologetic 9:00 AM. Stellan Vaughn, the man who had knelt on a sterile hospital floor yesterday to slip a flawless diamond onto my finger, the man who had promised to burn the universe to ash before he let anything hurt me, had left me completely alone on our wedding night.I forced my heavy, aching body to sit up.I reached for my phone, my thumb trembling slightly as I unlocked the screen. A pathetic, desperate part of me expect
~ Stellan’s POVThe crystal goblet caught the dim, ambient lighting of the Upper East Side penthouse, the deep red vintage swirling smoothly as she extended it toward me."Is this the woman you decided to take as your wife?"Stacy’s voice was exactly as I remembered it, a smooth, calculated purr that concealed a heart forged from pure, unapologetic greed. She stood in the center of her excessively lavish living room, wearing a designer trench coat she hadn't bothered to take off, her blonde hair perfectly styled. She looked at me with a mixture of amusement and mocking pity, holding the glass of wine out as if we were old friends catching up over a minor scandal.The feral, violently destructive beast inside my chest completely snapped his chains.I didn't answer her. I swung my arm, the back of my hand colliding brutally with the crystal goblet.The glass exploded, sending a shower of razor-sharp shards and dark crimson wine violently across the pristine white walls and the expensiv
~ Thea’s POVThe iron gates of the limestone estate parted with a slow, mechanical hum, allowing the SUV to glide through and crunch onto the gravel driveway.Graham cut the engine. The silence inside the cabin was thick, heavy, and absolutely suffocating.He quickly exited the driver’s side, rounding the hood to pull my door open. The biting, freezing Manhattan wind whipped across the circular driveway, but I barely felt it. I stepped out, my legs moving with a stiff, robotic precision. Every muscle in my body was coiled tight, vibrating with a toxic mixture of adrenaline and sheer, unadulterated shock.Graham unlocked the heavy oak front doors and guided me into the grand foyer.The moment the doors clicked shut behind us, sealing us away from the howling wind and the invisible, ravenous media storm currently tearing my husband's empire to shreds, the fragile thread holding my composure together violently snapped."Let's get you upstairs, Mrs. Vaughn," Graham murmured, his British a
~ Thea’s POVI turned my head, my dark eyes snapping from the blonde woman in the trench coat directly to the man standing beside me.I expected Stellan to look furious. To summon his security detail take them out for disrupting the peace.But Stellan Vaughn wasn't angry.His face was entirely bloodless as if he had just seen a ghost. The absolute, unshakeable confidence that had commanded the room just moments ago had been completely wiped away. He was staring down at the dark-haired little boy, his pitch-black eyes wide with a profound, mind-shattering shock. It was the look of a man who had just watched a ghost walk out of a grave.The silence lasted only a heartbeat before the media apocalypse truly detonated.Over a hundred reporters surged forward, entirely ignoring the ropes and the security barricades. Who is she, Stellan?! Is that your son?! Are you married?! Is this another scandal?! The camera flashes became a violent storm, capturing every single micro-expression on
~ Thea’s POV"Thea."My name, spoken with that dark, vibrating frequency that belonged solely to Stellan, echoed through the sound system. I could see the board of directors scrambling in the front row, their faces completely bloodless as the reality of Stellan's announcement crashed down around them.The Dragon of Wall Street had just publicly, permanently dismantled the executorship. He had announced his love for me to the entire world, and then, in a move that would send shockwaves through the global financial markets for months, he had temporarily abdicated his throne.All for me.I took a slow, steadying breath. The fear that had paralyzed me on the floor of the Hamptons estate was entirely gone, burned to ash by devotion blazing in my husband's pitch-black eyes.I stepped out from behind the heavy velvet curtain.The volume in the auditorium somehow managed to double. The frantic shouting mutated into a deafening, overlapping frenzy as every single camera lens in the room viole
~ Stellan’s POVThe blinding, rhythmic explosion of flashbulbs turned the massive, tiered press auditorium of Vaughn Enterprises into a glaring sea of white light.I stood behind the heavy mahogany podium, my hands gripping the edges of the wood. I was wearing a custom-tailored black suit, a stark and deliberate contrast to the blood-soaked shirt I had worn the last time I faced a room full of people. The chaotic, overlapping shouting of over a hundred journalists echoed off the ceilings, creating a deafening wall of noise.They wanted blood. They wanted a scandal. They wanted the Dragon of Wall Street to grovel, to issue a carefully sanitized, legally approved corporate apology for the events that had dominated global headlines for the last seven days.To my left, seated in the front row, the entire executive board of Vaughn Enterprises sweated under the harsh stage lights. They were gripping their briefcases, their faces pale and drawn, praying that I was about to deliver the exact
~ Thea’s POVWe were so close.We almost got caught. That was the red light blaring in my mind, but we never knew there was a hidden compartment, it was packed and we only had little space. The door clicked shut behind us, the moment the other door opened, sealing us in darkness broken only by th
~ Thea's POVFinally, the time for my internship to be done had come.The cardboard box on my desk wasn't heavy, but it felt like it weighed a ton. Inside were the remnants of my short-lived corporate life: a few branded pens, a notebook filled with marketing strategies that Stellan had called usele
~ Thea's POVAfter I had spilled all the beans to Stellan about the kind of fantasies I had, he made a promise he had yet to fulfill.And now every single hour that passed by, my pussy would ache.The restaurant Aunt Carol had chosen was exactly the kind of place she loved, pretentious, overly air-
~ Stellan's POVBreakfast was supposed to be simple. Black coffee, toast, her sitting across from me in nothing but my shirt again, legs dangling off the barstool, hair still fucked-up from last night. I liked the routine. Liked watching her lick jam off her thumb while pretending we weren’t both







