All Chapters of Trapped by the CEO: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

Five Years Later.The scent of burnt toast and impending doom filled the tiny, one-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn.Maya Lin sat at the scratched kitchen table, staring at the stack of envelopes in front of her. Red ink. Overdue. Final Notice. Eviction Warning."Okay," she exhaled, rubbing her temples where a headache was beginning to throb. "I can fix this. I just need one yes. Just one."She looked at her laptop screen. She had applied to thirty jobs in the last week. Twenty-nine had rejected her. Being a college dropout with two kids and a five-year gap in her resume didn't exactly scream "hire me.""Mommy?"Maya looked up, forcing a bright smile onto her face. "Hey, sweetie. What’s up?"Mia, her five-year-old daughter, waddled into the kitchen. She was wearing a tiara made of tin foil and a tutu that had seen better days. But it was her eyes—piercing, icy blue—that made Maya’s heart ache. They were his eyes."Leo is doing the clicky-clack thing again," Mia announced, pointing a chub

The drive to Brooklyn was suffocating.Maya sat in the back of the sleek black limousine, her hands clenched so tightly in her lap that her knuckles turned white. Beside her, Julian Thorne was a statue of ice and rage. He stared out the tinted window, his jaw clenched, tapping furiously on his phone."Sir," Maya tried again, her voice sounding thin and brittle. "I really think we should let the police handle this. Going there personally seems... dangerous.""I don't wait for the police," Julian said, cutting her off cold. "This hacker breached my personal firewall. He touched Project Alpha. I want to see his face before I hand him over to the feds."Maya swallowed a lump of terror. You’re going to see his face, alright. And it looks exactly like yours.The car slowed down as it entered her neighborhood. The sleek corporate towers of Manhattan were gone, replaced by crumbling brick buildings, graffiti-covered walls, and overflowing trash bins.Julian looked out the window, his lip curl

The plastic packet hit the glass coffee table with a sound that echoed like a gunshot in the silent penthouse.Maya stared at the DNA swab kit. Her throat went dry, her heart hammering against her ribs so hard she thought Julian must be able to see it through her blouse.You can’t be serious, she whispered, her voice trembling.I am always serious, Maya. Julian’s voice was smooth, dark, and terrifyingly calm. He walked around the table, closing the distance between them until he was towering over her. You claim the father is dead. You claim there is no record of him. Yet you have a son who shares my intellect and a daughter who has my eyes.He leaned down, placing a hand on the back of the sofa, boxing her in.Coincidences happen, he murmured, his face inches from hers. But I don't believe in coincidences. I believe in data. And I intend to get it.Maya’s mind raced. She was a software engineer, trained to solve logic puzzles, but this was a trap with no exit code. If he swabbed Leo,

The penthouse was silent, but the air felt heavy, charged with the kind of electricity that comes before a lightning strike.It had been six hours since the DNA test. Six hours of agonizing waiting.Maya paced the length of the guest bedroom. Leo and Mia were fast asleep, oblivious to the fact that their lives hung in the balance of a chemistry lab result.Maya stopped in front of the mirror. She was still wearing her grey pencil skirt and white blouse, but she had unbuttoned the top button. Her hand went to her chest, pressing against the fabric. She could feel the hard, rectangular outline of the prototype chip hidden inside the lace of her bra, resting right against her skin.It was burning her."I can't breathe," she whispered to herself.She needed water. She needed air. She needed to escape the suffocating quiet of this room.She opened the door and crept into the hallway. The penthouse was dim, lit only by the city lights filtering in through the massive glass walls. She made h

The steel door slammed shut with a finality that made Maya's bones ache.She spun around, slamming her palms against the cold, unyielding metal. The holding cell was located deep within the sub-basement of the Thorne estate. It was entirely concrete, lit by a single, harsh fluorescent bulb. There were no windows. No furniture. Just a drain in the floor and a camera watching her from the corner.Let me out! Maya screamed, her voice cracking as she pounded on the door. You cannot do this! Julian, please!Silence answered her.She slid down the door, pulling her knees to her chest. She had lost. The master key was gone, and with it, any leverage she had to protect her family. Julian thought she was a corporate spy, a thief who had seduced him simply to steal his empire.But the worst part was not the cold concrete or the fear of prison. The worst part was knowing that her children were upstairs, entirely at the mercy of a man who had just looked at her with pure, unadulterated hatred.Up