Ficorpio
Chapter 1
Chapter 1
You book a $0.99 shared ride, and the car that pulls up is a black Rolls-Royce.
The girl beside you tilts her head, a syrupy smile curling on her lips. “What a coincidence,” she says brightly. “You called for my boyfriend.”
You’re about to respond when the man walking toward the car steals the breath from your lungs.
His suit is impeccably tailored, his whole presence cool, distant, untouchably refined. He reaches out and helps the girl into the passenger seat with practiced gentleness.
Behind him, his assistant catches sight of you and goes pale. “Mrs. Sterling…”
“Where would you like to go?”
You lift a hand and swallow the words that almost came out: To the hospital. I have a prenatal appointment.
When you speak, your voice trembles despite your effort to steady it. “The airport.”
It comes out so softly it feels as if the wind might carry it away.
In the front seat, the girl happily grabs Adrian Sterling’s hand. “See? I told you not to come pick me up personally. Turning down money is stupid. A ninety-nine-cent fare could still buy a drink.”
Then she spins around with a grin, looking straight at you. “Besides, miss, I bet you’ve never ridden in a car like this before. Think of it as your chance to experience high society.”
You curve your lips into a distant smile and lift your eyes to the rearview mirror.
Adrian is still devastatingly handsome. His expression, however, is flat, unreadable, not a ripple on the surface. He gives a faint hum of acknowledgment and scrolls through his phone with long, elegant fingers, as if occupied with something important.
Your own phone screen keeps lighting up.
Text messages from Adrian.
[Sienna is innocent. Don’t scare her.]
[Relax. She won’t threaten your place as Mrs. Sterling. But I don’t want my family finding out about her.]
[Your parents’ company still depends on the Sterling family. You’re not going to do anything irrational, are you?]
You lock the screen and turn the phone facedown in your lap.
The moment you look up, your eyes meet his in the mirror.
His face gives nothing away. One hand taps lightly against the steering wheel, all sharp knuckles and controlled impatience, and his voice is cold enough to frost glass.
“Ma’am in the back. Put your seat belt on.”
You say nothing.
Instead, your gaze fixes on the pink sticker plastered to the dashboard in front of the passenger seat.
SIENNA’S FAIRY PRINCESS SEAT
A wave of bitterness rises so fast it drowns you whole.
A few minutes later, you force yourself to calm down. With numb fingers, you unlock your phone and buy a plane ticket to Fiji.
The rest of the drive passes in a stream of Sienna’s cheerful chatter. She talks about office gossip, petty things at Sterling Group, trivial stories that somehow delight her endlessly. Whenever she gets excited, she smacks Adrian lightly on the arm.
And Adrian, from beginning to end, shows not the slightest annoyance.
Chapter 2
Chapter 2
If anything, the corners of his mouth lift now and then. He even gives a quiet laugh, indulging her, following wherever she leads the conversation.
You sit silently in the back like an outsider watching someone else’s life unfold.
Memory after memory rises unbidden.
Every moment with Adrian had been formal, measured, transactional. Even when the two of you discussed the terms of your marriage alliance, you had sounded less like husband and wife than two parties negotiating a contract.
Except in bed.
There, he had been nothing like this.
There, he had been a wolf—fierce, relentless, red-eyed with hunger, taking everything you had to give.
“Miss, do you want some chips?”
Sienna’s soft voice cuts through your thoughts.
You look at her smooth, youthful face. The words the other woman circle on your tongue, hot and poisonous, but in the end you swallow them back.
“No, thank you,” you say lightly.
“Oh. Okay.”
She answers sweetly, then offers the chips to Adrian. When she remembers he’s driving, she pops one between her lips instead and leans toward him.
Adrian’s eyes flicked to the rearview mirror on instinct. His grip tightened on the steering wheel until his knuckles went white, but in the end he still gave in to Sienna’s coaxing. His throat bobbed, and he leaned in to take the half-chip from her mouth.
You turned your face away and looked out the window.
At your side, Sienna’s shy little voice floated over. “Don’t laugh at us, Claire. We’re still in that honeymoon stage. Honestly, I planned not to date before I turned twenty-five, but he’s just been so good to me. He’s always quietly standing up for me at Sterling Group because he’s afraid I’ll be bullied at work, and he comes the second I call. I’m almost embarrassed by it. Even today—I just had cramps, that’s all, but he was so worried he insisted on dropping work to take me to the hospital with me…”
“That’s nice.” You cut her off before you could stop yourself, the chill in your voice impossible to hide. “I wish you a long and happy life together.”
You fought down the acid burn in your chest, picked up your purse and phone, and said, your voice trembling slightly, “I’ll get out here.”
Sienna blinked at you in surprise. “Aren’t we going to the same place? Weren’t you headed to the hospital too?”
You smiled and grabbed the first excuse you could find. “Something came up. My boyfriend said he’d meet me here.”
You hadn’t expected Adrian to come after you the moment you stepped out of the car.
He looked down at you, his voice pitched low. “What the hell did you mean by that?”
You frowned, completely baffled. “By what?”
Chapter 3
Chapter 3
“‘A long and happy life together.’ What was that supposed to mean?” Adrian glanced around, then suddenly grabbed your wrist. His displeasure showed plainly on his face. “You know my parents only acknowledge you as their daughter-in-law, so you said that on purpose to disgust me, didn’t you?”
You tried to pull free, but his hold only tightened.
His anger sharpened. “Claire Bennett, that boyfriend of yours was a lie, wasn’t it? And if that man actually exists”—his voice dropped, dangerous and cold—“you know exactly what I’m capable of.”
You stared at him, incredulous. “What does that have to do with you? The first time we met, you made it very clear this marriage was just for show. In private, we stayed out of each other’s lives.”
“That’s different.”
Adrian looked on the verge of losing control. In that moment, he felt like some caged beast finally baring its teeth.
“Your family came begging for a marriage alliance because the Bennetts were on the brink of collapse. In a deal like that, you should be absolutely obedient to me.” His gaze dragged over you, ugly and cutting. “Or what? Have you been sleeping alone so long you can’t stand it anymore? Need me to help you out?”
The words had barely left his mouth before his hand slid to your waist and he bent toward you—
“What are you doing?”
Sienna had run after him without either of you noticing. Her eyes were red as she shouted, “You two… you…”
She covered her mouth and stared at Adrian’s hand on your waist in disbelief. The next second, she lunged at you and slapped you hard across the face.
You hadn’t expected someone who looked so small and delicate to hit that hard.
You staggered, barely catching your balance, one hand flying instinctively to your lower abdomen.
“You shameless bitch!” Sienna pointed at you as she cried, her voice breaking with fury. “No wonder you were talking like that in the car. You were after my boyfriend all along, weren’t you? Just because you’re pretty, you think you can seduce someone else’s man? What are you, public property? Do you have no self-respect at all?”
At first, you’d thought Sienna didn’t know the truth. You’d even felt a trace of sympathy for her, thinking she was being deceived too.
But now she had seen with her own eyes that Adrian had been the one to come at you, and she still dumped all her rage on your head.
Your face went cold.
You looked straight at her. “The boyfriend you’re talking about is already married. Did you know that? I’m his—”