All Chapters of In Bed with My Shitty Ex and his Uncle: His Contractual wife: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

Liam’s POVI don’t remember deciding to drive…….I just remember my foot already on the gas and the city lights streaking past my windshield like they were running from me…..I knew I was speeding but that was literally the only way to blow off steam.“Jesus Christ,” I mutter, dragging a hand through my hair. “Jesus fucking Christ.”My uncle’s voice kept replaying in my head……Calm and freaking condescending……Like he was explaining something obvious to a child.He always treated me like a child…..he treated everyone like we were too dumb to comprehend what was going on.“You don’t get to take my wife anywhere you want.”I scoff out loud. “Your wife.”The word tastes wrong coming from him….. especially since he didn't treat her like one.Adrian had always been like that….Cold and calculated…..he sure loved being mysterious. He doesn’t yell because he doesn’t need to…..Power does the yelling for him. He could just stand there, tall and expensive, and let people fold.And Elena…..Elena f

Elena’s POVThe PR team had called it damage control.I called it public humiliation in designer clothing……Apparently, the best way to debunk rumors about Freya’s “accident” being caused by Adrian…..was to attend a charity luncheon surrounded by socialites and snubs who smelled blood beneath their perfume and journalists who pretended not to circle like vultures….A luncheon. That was happening at noon…..With cameras…..And me.Adrian did surely know how to drag people into his messes.I stared at a message on my phone while standing barefoot in my bedroom, silk robe slipping off one shoulder, my reflection looking back at me like she’d already lost the argument.Three days ago…..It had been three days since Adrian suggested an open marriage like it was some progressive, enlightened solution instead of emotional arson. Three days since I realized…really realized….that the man I married had not changed. That I’d been stupid enough to believe six months of almosts and maybes meant som

ELENA'S POV I don’t walk out of the hall.I bolt….my heart almost in my stomach.The chair scraped loudly when I stood, a sharp ugly sound that sliced through the polite hum of conversation. Heads turned almost immediately. Someone whispered my name….. everyone had seen the headline.I feel it…..The stares…..The judgment.The way everyone were already rewriting me in their heads.My phone vibrated in my hand again. I didn’t look. More headlines were popping out.They had twisted it.Of course they had.I kept my head high anyway. Pride was the only thing holding my spine together at that moment. My heels clicked too loudly against the marble as I moved, each step stiff and robotic, like my body was on autopilot and my brain was lagging behind.I could feel moisture everywhere….I was sweating “Mrs. BlackThorne….”“ Mrs. Elena, could you clarify….”“Did you mean Adrian was present that night?”“Are you retracting your statement?”The questions stacked on top of each other, loud and

Elena's POV I snuck into the penthouse like I was trespassing in my own life.My heels in my hand…..my heart racing.Everything Commissioner Hale told me kept replaying on a loop, like a song I hated but couldn’t turn off.“Your mother and Freya were close.”They met regularly.“Freya was digging into something they weren’t supposed to.”Friends.My mother wasn’t just some unlucky woman who died quietly and left me and my dad with grief. She had been involved. She had known Freya…….And Freya hadn’t died randomly either.Nothing in my life was random.I was almost at the bedroom when Adrian’s voice stopped me.I looked up, he was leaning the kitchen island, shirtless and sexy…his hair scattered in a tired kind of way. It was obvious he was tired of my bullshit…..he was not amused.“Where have you been?”I froze for half a second, then kept walking like I hadn’t heard him.“I went out,” I said.“That’s not an answer.”I turned slowly. He was standing straight now by the kitchen island,

Elena's POV I lay on my back staring at the ceiling, eyes wide open.Sleep refused to come.Every time I closed my eyes, I saw water and Amelia's cold, battered face. The way the sheet clung to her shape like it was trying to remember her body.So I kept my eyes open instead.Adrian hadn’t slept either.I could hear him moving around the house……pacing around frantically.Drawers opening and closing. The low murmur of his voice as he took calls on the balcony. He spoke like he didn’t want the walls to hear him. I turned my head toward the door, listening.“…handle it quietly,” he said into the phone.A pause.“No leaks….. Not yet…. We'll communicate the funeral process after the autopsy results.”Another pause.“I don’t care who you have to call.”His voice was calm, but I knew that calm. He was only hanging on by a thread…. I could feel his spirit breaking just from his voice alone.I rolled onto my side and pulled the duvet closer, not because I was cold but because I needed some