All Chapters of The Ultimatum Wife: Chapter 171 - Chapter 180

The young operative, Evan paced Marcus’s dim apartment, phone pressed to his ear. Marcus sat on the worn couch, elbows resting on his knees, attention sharpened to a blade.Finally, Evan lowered the phone. “Uh… Marcus?” he said slowly. “You’re not going to like this.”Marcus didn’t look up. “What now?”“That call earlier?” Evan swallowed. “It wasn’t just a random inquiry. It was Mrs. Harrow.”Marcus’s eyes lifted with lethal calm.“Go on.”Evan exhaled shakily. “She’s not buying the arrest. She thinks Elena killed her husband.”The silence that followed wasn’t loud.It was suffocating.Marcus leaned back, fingers steepled under his chin, expression unreadable.“She wants intel,” Evan continued. “Wants us to trace Elena’s history, aliases, underworld connections, everything.”Marcus closed his eyes for a brief moment. Not in frustration. In restraint.Evan kept talking, unaware of the storm forming behind Marcus’s stillness. “She’ll pay big,” Evan added. “Enough to fund the next phase

Jace was already pacing, hands in his hair, joy spilling out of him unchecked. “This is perfect. This is literally perfect. You’re going to see what I see. You’re going to like him. I know you are.”Elena didn’t say anything to that.Then Jace stopped mid step and snapped his fingers.“Oh.”She narrowed her eyes. “Oh what?”“We can make it a double date.”“No,” she said instantly.Jace ignored her completely.“Roman should come.”“Absolutely not.”Jace turned, eyes sparkling with mischief and excitement. “Come on. It’ll make it normal. Balanced. And Roman can intimidate Marcus a little so you feel better.”Elena sighed. “That’s exactly why Roman shouldn’t come.”“But that’s the fun part,” Jace grinned. “Plus, Roman’s been hovering around you like a very expensive bodyguard. He needs fresh air.”She opened her mouth to shut it down. Then she looked at Jace again. Really looked.At the way his shoulders were lifted with anticipation. At the glow in his face. At how rare it was to see h

They moved from store to store after that, the mood lightening.Jace picked accessories with theatrical seriousness. Elena humored him, letting him choose earrings, shoes, even a clutch she didn’t need but accepted anyway.Roman paid without comment, watching the way Elena’s posture changed as she tried things on, how she slipped effortlessly back into a version of herself that commanded rooms.By the time they returned to the estate, dusk had settled fully.Upstairs, the getting ready process unfolded like a ritual.Jace claimed one of the guest rooms, music blaring as he tried on shirts, discarded half of them, then tried them on again.Elena retreated to her bedroom, calm and precise, changing with practiced ease. Roman moved in and out quietly, swapping shirts, fixing his hair, checking his watch more than once.When Elena finally stepped out, fully ready, Roman turned at the sound of the door and forgot what time it was supposed to be.The dress, the heels, the way she carried he

Marcus’s gaze didn’t leer. Didn’t devour. It studied. Careful. Intimate in a way that felt misplaced for a stranger. Like someone trying to recognize a face from a dream.Elena’s spine straightened almost imperceptibly.That was strange.She’d been stared at her whole life. By enemies. By admirers. By men who wanted to own her and women who wanted to be her. None of it ever touched her like this.This did.Not threatening.Not familiar.Just… unsettling.Roman pulled his chair out beside her and sat, posture tall, presence unmistakable. He didn’t break eye contact with Marcus when he spoke.“Marcus,” he said evenly.Marcus turned to him at last, expression smoothing into polite ease. “Roman. Thank you for coming.”The handshake was brief. Firm. Controlled.A test.Marcus passed it without effort.Jace, meanwhile, was beaming.“Oh my God, I’m so glad this finally happened,” he said, sliding into the seat beside Marcus, close enough that their shoulders brushed. “This is perfect. You al

Dinner unraveled slowly after that, like a knot loosening one careful tug at a time.Plates were cleared. Dessert came and went. The wine kept flowing, refilled just often enough that Elena felt the warmth settle pleasantly behind her eyes. Not drunk. Not reckless. Just… lighter.And Roman noticed.She leaned into him more openly now, fingers tracing lazy patterns along his sleeve, her voice dipping when she spoke to him as if the rest of the table barely existed.“You know,” she murmured, tilting her head, eyes bright, “you look very smug for a man who canceled a Zurich dinner.”Roman smiled faintly. “Worth it.”She laughed softly, leaning closer. “That wasn’t flirting. Try again.”His hand slid to her knee beneath the table, thumb pressing a quiet promise there. “You’re tipsy.”“And you’re enjoying it,” she countered, eyes dancing.Jace pretended not to see it, blissfully absorbed in his own world, elbow brushing Marcus’s as he talked animatedly about something inconsequential.Marc