All Chapters of Betrayed by design: Chapter 1 - Chapter 7

The sunlight through the tall windows should have been beautiful, and in her first week as Mrs. Blackwell, Sloane had believed it meant she was above all her problems. Well, that delusion lasted nine days.Now the sunlight showed the truth, making the space between her and Nathaniel feel like a barrier.She didn’t touch her yogurt, watching the granola turn soggy while her throat tightened with unspoken feelings.Nathaniel sat at the opposite end, scrolling through his tablet, engrossed in financial headlines with a focus he never gave her.The clink of her spoon against porcelain broke the silence.“The gala coverage was favorable,” he said without looking up. “Photo of us made the business section with ‘Power Couple’ as the title.” Her fingers tightened on the spoon, then she forced herself to relax and placed it down carefully.“Efficient,” she managed to say. “That’s what we needed.”He glanced at her, noting her blue dress, neat hair, and makeup—everything perfectly in place for

The sixty-eighth floor of Vance Industries felt empty after midnight, Sloane’s heels echoing on the concrete as she walked back from the kitchenette with cold coffee in her hand while her desk glowed alone in the darkness, covered in plans for the Tokyo flagship that she stayed late to perfect after Nathaniel casually said he liked the idea of blended aesthetics.The building was so quiet she could hear the servers humming three rooms away.Then she saw it, a thin gold line of light under his office door, sharp in the darkness. She paused, Nathaniel had said he was having dinner with the Zurich investors and would be at Le Grillon until at least eleven and then go straight home, but she had checked the time when her team left at 10:47 and now it was 12:23.His car was in the executive garage when she went down for her purse an hour ago, the black Bentley sitting in its reserved spot, still warm. She assumed he had taken a car service to dinner or that maintenance had moved it.But he

Sloane’s hands trembled as she locked the sitting room door behind her. The white camellias in the crystal vase looked like an accusation and dawn light slipped through the curtains leaving everything pale, she had only fifteen minutes before Damon brought the car around.Check the flowers, there’s something inside.She lifted the vase and tipped it over the sink as water and stems spilled out along with a small plastic-wrapped package, she stood still.It was matchbox-sized and sealed in waterproof film with a USB drive and a folded note inside, the message written in blocky anonymous capitals letters:YOU HAVE EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO DESTROY HIM BUT IF YOU USE IT, HE WILL KNOW AND THE BODYGUARD REPORTS DIRECTLY TO NATHANIEL. TRUST NO ONE.Her pulse roared in her ears as she unwrapped the drive and plugged it into her laptop, glancing at the locked door.The files opened showing financial records, emails and legal documents. Her name appeared again and again.Sloane Vance – Asset Liqu