Mackenzie knew that Jeffrey had an arsenal of hotshot lawyers at his disposal, along with his cunning, scheming bitch of a mother. It would cost them nothing to tweak the law a little bit to come for her kids.Wealthy people are scary.The Axfords are scarier.She was helpless against them. Broke, trying so hard to make ends meet, she could barely afford a good lawyer if it came to that. In the best case scenario, she would be only to get shared custody of her kids… with Jeffrey.The mere thought was a nightmare.Her poor, innocent babies would become mere tools in the hands of Eleanor and Jeffrey. Then again, the truth of her infidelity would come to light in front of the entire world. Not many things about the Axfords go unnoticed by the press, so the scandal of her having kids for her husband’s stepbrother, while still married… was going to mess up her reputation.Everyone would see her as an infidel. Mackenzie didn’t have the heart to endure that kind of public judgement.At this

When Chase makes her completely his, no man would have even a shred of audacity to look in her general direction the wrong way. He would fucking gauge the eyes out of anyone that dared.His thoughts suddenly strayed back to Mackenzie’s friends, and he remembered “Uncle” Maverick. Something just didn’t sit right about that man with him.“Is that guy, Maverick, your Uncle?” He asked.Mackenzie looked up at him. “Uh, no.” She let out a tiny smile. “We just call him that out of habit.”Chase didn’t like the fact that she smiled just at the mere mention of him. Jealousy reared its head in his mind. He asked again, “Why would you three call him that out of habit, though?”“Well, he and Charlotte are actually cousins. But he’s older that us by a big gap, so he was always the protective figure when we girls were little kids. So we just started calling him that. Till today, he’s still very protective of us.”Chase blinked, unimpressed.Protective? He wouldn’t mind if that guy was protective ov

West was thoroughly dumbfounded, staring through the glass door at Mackenzie standing right in front of it. He could barely even believe his own eyes. He had just been talking about her, and she is suddenly standing there!He glanced at Chase, who was staring at Mackenzie as well, and looked back at her, mouth dropping. The wheels in his head were spinning and clicking as he tried to fit the puzzle pieces all together.Mackenzie swallowed, pressing her hands against her skirt in a bid to remain calm and collected. Of course, she was shocked to see West in here so soon. In the car ride on the way here, she had known she would meet a lot of people who knew her from her marriage with Jeffrey.Including West. So she had mentally prepared to face him, but she never expected it to be so soon. In Chase’s office of all places. Her eyes slid to Chase, and he motioned for her to come in.The security guard pushed the glass open, ushering her inside. When she stepped through, he closed the door,

Jeffrey stared at his phone, at the picture of Chase and Mackenzie. Mackenzie. She was the only person in the picture that caught his interest. His onyx eyes were filled with shock, roaming her face on the screen. She looked different. With her thick, long curls left untouched, unlike how he remembered her always straightening till the point where he felt sickened just by looking at her.He could see she was glowing, even when she was not directly facing the camera. But he still could not believe it was her. He say in absolutely stunned silence.His mother had paid a reporter to stalk Chase in other to dig around for some dirt on him. Instead of the reporter capturing a juicy secret they could wield as a weapon against him, to show the board of directors and win them over, but he had gotten something even more shocking.Something Jeffrey never expected.He could not believe Chase was with Mackenzie. What was she even doing in Greensville? She had run off to North Dakota, and did not e

“Fine. But did something happen?” Mackenzie asked.Chase did not give a direct answer. Instead, he deflected the question and asked back, “Is anyone threatening you? If something like that ever happens, you will tell me immediately, right?”Mackenzie was caught off guard by that random question. Only, it did not seem to be so random to Chase, judging by the look she could see in his eyes. There was obviously a reason he was saying that to her. A reason she did not know about, yet.“You’re acting strange, Chase. You know that whatever happens, I am not going back on my word.” She moved back to her desk, careful not to get too close to him. That was dangerous. And picked up her bag. “I should get going to the factory now. They’ll be waiting for me.”*************A few hours later, when Mackenzie was rounding up a fairly successful first day of work, she realized that she had not even called her kid’s nanny to check up on them. She moved to a quiet part of the factory and fished out her