Williams’s POV
I was buried in paperworks in my study room, my mind still spinning from the news about my money being diverted.
Forty-five billion dollars.
Gone.
Redirected through something called the Ashford Section.
I stared at the document in front of me, trying to understand how this had happened.
How had Victor Ashford even known about my contract?
How was he involved in something so deeply buried?
I angrily folded the paper and threw it toward the door just as it suddenly opened.
Nadia came running in, her face flushed, her breathing heavy.
“You have to see this,” she gasped.
“Miriam… How? I mean, how come…”
“Why are you calling that bitch’s name in front of me?” I yelled, my anger boiling over.
“That bitch is suddenly married to Victor Ashford, and she’s the new CEO. It’s all over the internet. Everyone’s talking about it.”
I froze.
I yanked the phone from her hands and started scrolling impatiently.
Cold spread through me, mixing with the rage that was already consuming me.
The headlines were screaming at me from every angle.
“MR ASHFORD INTRODUCES HIS WIFE, MIRIAM ASHFORD”
“SHOCKING NEWS: ASHFORD INDUSTRIES HAS A NEW CEO WHO TURNS OUT TO BE HIS WIFE, MIRIAM ASHFORD”
There were pictures of her walking out beside Victor, their hands linked, both of them smiling at the cameras.
Security guards were pushing reporters away, trying to protect their privacy.
But the images were everywhere.
Miriam in that burgundy dress.
Victor looking at her like she was the most important thing in the world.
How?
How had she become married to him?
How had she become CEO?
“Say something,” Nadia ranted, yanking her phone back from my hands.
“I knew that bitch was a whore. I knew she was up to no good.”
I sat back in my chair, unable to process what I was seeing.
I couldn’t move.
I couldn’t think.
One question kept repeating in my mind- How?
Nadia walked off, yelling and ranting about Miriam being a slut and a gold-digger.
But I wasn’t listening anymore.
My phone started ringing.
Lily.
She must have seen the news too.
I laughed out loud, but there was no humor in it.
This couldn’t be real.
First my money was diverted to an Ashford orphanage.
Now Miriam was married to Victor Ashford and had become the CEO of his company.
What was happening?
How was this possible?
“Is this how she’s getting back at me?” I asked no one in particular, continuing to laugh even though nothing felt funny.
My phone kept ringing.
This time I decided to pick it up.
“Did you see the news?” Lily’s voice screeched through the speaker, high-pitched and panicked.
“Yeah, I saw it,” I said flatly.
“So you know what kind of girl he likes?” I cut in.
“What?” she snapped.
“Is that really what you’re going to say right now? That bitch is everywhere. She’s the new CEO. She’s married to the most powerful man in the city. What are we going to do?”
There was silence between us.
I was disoriented, picking at words just to keep myself sane.
“What are you going to do?” Lily continued.
“That bitch is annoying me. I feel like I could kill her with my bare hands.”
“First, I need to go up against him,” I said slowly, my mind starting to work again.
“I’m going to file a case against him for diverting my contract funds. As for Miriam, she’s not the dumb bitch I thought she was. She’s playing a game I didn’t see coming.”
“We need to meet,” Lily said urgently.
“Don’t let her shitty sister know. Remember our discussion about what we’d do if things went wrong?”
“Yeah, I remember,” I said.
“Let’s meet tomorrow at your place.”
I ended the call and stood up, running my hands through my hair.
I poured myself a drink- wine, expensive wine that I’d stolen from Miriam’s collection before she left.
The taste was bitter in my mouth.
That girl had decided to team up with Victor Ashford.
She’d aligned herself with the one man who could actually hurt me.
She’d played me perfectly.
While I was focused on Miriam’s destruction, she was busy building an empire with Ashford.
This was going to be a long fight.
And for the first time since I’d married her, I wasn’t sure I was going to win.
Miriam’s POV
I sat in the back of the car, scrolling through social media.
Everything I’d wanted had happened.
Everyone now knew I was Victor Ashford’s wife.
Everyone knew I was the new CEO of Ashford Industries.
The comments were pouring in- some approving, some disapproving, some downright hostile.
But it didn’t matter what they thought.
For the next year, I was Mrs. Miriam Ashford.
And that was all that mattered.
The car door opened and Victor entered, pushing away the crowd of reporters who were shouting questions at him.
The driver pulled away from the curb, and the security guards continued doing their job, keeping the media at bay.
“This is the world you accepted, Miriam,” Victor said, turning to look at me.
I smiled.
“Well, I think I’ll get used to it.”
“You did well today,” he commended, and I could see the pride in his eyes.
“Better than well. You were perfect.”
He held my eyes with that look that made my heart skip.
That look I was starting to notice more and more.
That twinkle that appeared every time he looked at me.
“Well, I had to,” I replied, trying to ignore the flutter in my chest.
He smirked.
“Change of plans. I’m going to show you everything. Everything about being a CEO. All the deals. All the negotiations. All the responsibilities.”
I nodded my head.
He stretched forward a thick file and handed it to me.
“You can go through these in your free time. Study them. Understand them. By the time we announce at my mum’s charity Gala next week, I want you to know everything.”
“Okay,” I said, taking the file.
“So where are we going?”
“A resort.”
I looked at him in surprise.
“A resort?”
“It’s where I go when I want to celebrate a big win. And this is a big win for you. You deserve to celebrate.”
I should have argued.
I should have told him this wasn’t necessary.
But instead, I decided to just go along with it.
Celebrating my victory wasn’t a bad thing.
“Alright then. To the resort,” I said.
He smiled, and I noticed how his dimple deepened on his face.
I shook my head, trying to ignore how attractive he looked when he smiled like that.
My phone rang suddenly.
It was an unknown number- not the one from my mother’s lawyer because I had saved that contact.
But announcing to the world that I was CEO meant I’d be open to calls from anyone.
I decided to pick up.
“You bitch, I knew what you were up to. You actually whored yourself out.”
I recognized the voice immediately.
A chuckle escaped my lips.
“Hello, Sister.”
“How dare you call me sister…”
“Never knew you changed your number,” I said mockingly.
“And seeing you call me so quickly is quite amazing. Did you see the news already?”
Nadia laughed over the phone, but it was a scared laugh.
An angry laugh.
The laugh of someone who didn’t know what was coming.
“You think you won, right?” she said, her voice shaking with emotion.
“I’m going to tell the whole world who you really are. I’m going to expose you.”
“Well, Nadia, I wish you good luck with whatever you’re planning to do,” I said coldly.
“And yes, let me not forget to send my regards to your boyfriend- Williams.
I’m sure he’s with you right now, isn’t he?
“You crazy bitch…”
I hung up before she could finish her sentence.
I held my phone tightly, breathing hard.
The rage was building inside me, threatening to overflow.
But I couldn’t let it.
Not now.
Not when I was so close to everything I wanted.
“Are you okay?” Victor asked, his voice filled with concern.
I turned to face him and forced myself to breathe slowly.
He wore a worried expression, like he was genuinely concerned about my wellbeing.
“Yes, I’m fine,” I said, adjusting my hair and putting on a smile.
“I shouldn’t allow an unimportant person ruin my mood. Not today.”
I pushed down the rage, the anger, the urge to call back and say things that would burn bridges.
I had won today.
Nadia had lost.
Williams was scrambling.
Lily was panicking.
But as I sat there next to Victor, watching him arrange for the car to take us to his resort, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was forgetting something important.
Something my mother’s lawyer had wanted to tell me.
Something that had been waiting for me all this time.
Outside the car, the world celebrated Miriam Ashford’s rise to power.
Inside the car, I was beginning to wonder if I’d made a bargain with the devil.
And the scariest part?
I wasn’t sure I wanted out anymore.