Chapter 3

Cecily's POV

The study door clicked shut. Everett was gone.

He had actually left. He had traded my dignity for a seat on the board and a future with another woman.

The moment we were alone, I shoved Nolan's arm off my waist. I backed away, breathing hard, and put Everett's huge mahogany desk between us.

"You're insane," I said, my voice shaking. "You don't even want the company, Nolan. You hate the board. You spend half the year racing cars in Monaco."

Nolan wasn't offended. He only smiled. He walked over to Everett's desk, picked up a heavy silver paperweight, tossed it into the air, and caught it easily.

"You're right, Cecily. I have no interest in the CEO title," he said. "Endless meetings? Stock prices? Everett can choke on all of it."

"Then why?" I demanded. "Why are you doing this to me? Why are you doing it to him?"

Nolan stopped tossing the paperweight. The amusement disappeared from his eyes, replaced by deep resentment.

He leaned across the desk, bracing his weight on his knuckles until his face was only inches from mine.

"Because Everett has been the golden boy since we were children," Nolan said quietly. "The perfect son with perfect grades. Mother and Father practically built a shrine to him, while I was nothing but the spare. Anything Everett wanted, Everett got."

His long fingers closed around my chin, forcing me to meet those ice-blue eyes. They looked exactly like my husband's, but there was no mercy in them.

"He even got Sabine," Nolan said. Her name cut through the room.

My breath caught.

"He never told you?" Nolan's mocking smile returned. "We both knew her growing up. We both wanted her. But Sabine only saw the heir. Whenever Everett was around, I might as well have been a shadow."

The ugly truth settled in my stomach.

"So you're doing all of this to humiliate him," I said, barely above a whisper. "Because you couldn't have Sabine, you decided to take his wife."

"Having you is a bonus, little bird. You're much sweeter than corporate revenge." Nolan released my chin with a low laugh, his thumb trailing down my neck. Fear made me shake, and I hated the betrayal behind it. "I don't love you, Cecily. But legally, you belong to him. You're his perfect porcelain doll. And breaking something that belongs to my perfect brother gives me a kind of satisfaction money can't buy."

He was using me to destroy Everett's pride. And Everett was allowing it to protect his precious crown. I was trapped between two monsters.

A sharp knock sounded outside the study door, breaking the suffocating silence.

"Mr. Rothwell?" a maid called through the door. "The stylist has delivered Mrs. Rothwell's dress for tonight's family dinner."

My stomach sank. Tonight was the Rothwell family's quarterly dinner. The entire board would be there, along with Everett's overbearing mother.

Malicious excitement lit Nolan's eyes. He walked past me toward the door.

"Tell the stylist to leave it," Nolan ordered, copying his brother's authoritative tone perfectly.

Then he looked back at my trembling body.

"Tonight is going to be very entertaining," he said, his voice dropping. "You'll sit beside my brother, smile for the cameras, and play the faithful wife who adores her husband."

He stepped closer, forcing me back against the bookcase.

"But remember this, Cecily." His mouth came down hard against the corner of mine, nearly leaving a bruise. "When you smile at him tonight... you already belong to me."