“That child is mine. And so are you,” he commanded, his viper-green eyes pinning her in place.

Grace couldn’t believe that he—Carlos Benjamin, her new CEO and eight years her junior—was the father of her unborn baby.

“You can go back to that deadbeat you call a husband, or you can come with me and have everything.”

=====

For the last five years of her marriage, Grace Preston, 32, believed she was broken. She couldn’t have a child, and her deadbeat husband, Charles, never let her forget it, calling her useless while she worked tirelessly to fund his failed acting career. He didn’t just break her spirit; he shattered her trust by cheating on her with her own sister.

Heartbroken, Grace fled to her office late one night, seeking solace at the bottom of a bottle. She wasn’t alone. A beautiful, blond-haired man was there, nursing his own wounds.

He never told her his name, but he offered her a night of oblivion. Fueled by whiskey and a desperate need for revenge, she gave in to her darkest desires, pulling the willing stranger into her web.

In her drunken haze, she thought, “If my husband can have his fun, then so can I.”

She never worried about protection, convinced she was barren. Until a month later, when a positive pregnancy test trembled in her hands. Grace Preston, the ‘barren’ wife, was pregnant.

In a single night, the stranger gave her what Charles couldn’t in five years.
Now Carlos has made his claim, pulling her into a world of immense power and lethal secrets. Will Grace escape her toxic marriage only to be trapped in this captivating young billionaire’s golden cage? Or is trading one prison for another a mistake that will cost her more than just her heart?


I hauled my heavy suitcase from the master bedroom, but Charles planted himself in the doorway like a human barricade, refusing to let me pass.


"Move," I commanded, my voice sharp as steel.


Charles's mouth pressed into a thin line while he scrambled for ways to trap me in this room. The fool actually believed I was having some kind of meltdown. He'd blown this whole mess out of proportion in his twisted mind.


"You're seriously having a fit over something this trivial? You realize how juvenile it is to storm out because I hooked up with your sister one time?" Charles lectured me like I was a child. "And cut the divorce crap. You know damn well you can't divorce me."


"Don't push me, Charles," I warned him. "You're acting like divorcing you would be some Herculean task. You contribute absolutely nothing. You're a terrible househusband, you don't earn a dime, and you can't even stay faithful. I've got a thousand and one reasons to dump you, but I haven't because—"


Chapter 17 - Chapter 17 My Right As Your Husband