All Chapters of SHE WAS NEVER HIS MISTRESS : Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

FLYNN'S POV The conference call ended at 6:15. I should have left then. Instead I sat at my desk and stared at my phone. Sienna had texted an hour ago. *Baby's kicking like crazy. Doctor says everything looks good. Thank you for everything.* I'd read it three times. Each time the weight in my chest got a little heavier. I pulled up her contact and stared at it. What I knew about Sienna's situation sat in my chest like a stone I couldn't put down. Marcus Hale's family lawyer had made one thing very clear when Sienna first told me everything: the moment my name became publicly connected to Sienna's, they would use it. Flynn Thornfield, wealthy, connected, sending money to a pregnant woman carrying a Hale family secret. They would build a story around that and they had the money and the lawyers to make it stick. Conspiracy to extort. Coordinated scheme. Whatever language hurt most. And it wouldn't stop at Sienna. If they came after me, they'd pull Aria in too. My wife. Her name. Her

ARIA'S POVRebecca had texted me the address. A small apartment building in Sellwood. Unit 2B.I sat in my car across the street for twenty minutes. Hands on the steering wheel. Engine off. The sun had set but the sky still held some light, that blue-grey color that meant night was coming.Seven months pregnant.I kept saying it in my head. Trying to make it real. Seven months meant he'd been with her while we were planning our fourth anniversary trip. While we'd had dinner with Jordan and her family. While he'd told me he loved me every single morning.The building was old but maintained. Brown siding. Small patios with dead plants. A bike rack with two bikes chained to it. Not the kind of place Flynn would normally notice. Not the kind of place that matched our house with its hardwood floors and granite counters.But he'd found it. Had been here. Multiple times, probably, if he was paying her rent.I made myself get out of the car. My legs felt wrong. Too heavy and too light at the

ARIA'S POV The apartment was four hundred and fifty square feet on the fourth floor of a walk-up in Hawthorne. Jordan stood beside me while the landlord unlocked the door."It's small," Mrs. Kowalski said. She was maybe seventy, with white hair and kind eyes. "But the light is good. And it's quiet."The door swung open. Hardwood floors. White walls. Two windows that faced east. Empty except for dust motes floating in the afternoon sun.Our house had been twenty-four hundred square feet. This place would fit in our living room."Can I see?" Jordan asked.Mrs. Kowalski gestured us in. "Take your time."The main room served as everything. Living room, bedroom, dining room. A tiny kitchen in one corner with a two-burner stove and a sink the size of a mixing bowl. A bathroom so small I could touch both walls at once. A closet that might fit half my clothes.Jordan opened the windows. March air rushed in, cold and sharp. "The bones are good."I walked to the window. Below, Hawthorne Street

FLYNN'S POVThe meeting was going well. Three potential investors, all nodding in the right places while I walked them through our Q2 projections. Harrison sat to my right, pulling up data on the screen when I needed it. We'd done this presentation a dozen times. Smooth. Professional. The kind of performance that built empires.Then Amanda knocked on the conference room door.She never interrupted meetings. In five years as my assistant, she'd learned that closed door meant unavailable. The fact that she was standing there, looking pale and uncomfortable, meant something was wrong."Excuse me." I stood. "One moment."The investors exchanged glances. Harrison's eyes followed me to the door.Amanda handed me an envelope the second I stepped into the hallway. "A man just came. He asked for you by name. Said I had to give you this personally."The envelope was thin. Legal size. My name typed on the front."He said it was time-sensitive," Amanda added quietly.I opened it right there. Pull

FLYNN'S POVHarrison showed up at nine with a bottle of Scotch and no explanation.I let him in without a word. We walked to the kitchen because the living room felt wrong tonight. Too open. Too full of the shape of her.He set the bottle on the counter. Found two glasses without being told where they were. Poured wine and said nothing.We drank standing up for a while. The kitchen light was too bright and neither of us moved to fix it."She went to Sienna's apartment," I said finally.Harrison looked at his glass. "I know.""She saw the baby things. The vase she'd bought me two years ago. Sienna had it on her counter." I stopped. "I gave it to her because Sienna's apartment had nothing personal in it. I… I thought it would help.""Flynn.""I know how it sounds.""Do you? Because from where I'm standing, your wife walked into a strange woman's apartment and found your things there."I said nothing. The refrigerator hummed. "Walk me through your logic," Harrison said. "The real versio