My Fiancé Betrayed The Wrong Mafia Heiress Chapter 05
You Have No Choice
I stay on the floor, staring at the man I planned to marry.
My cheek burns. My wrist aches where his fingers crushed it.
Ethan turns away as if the conversation is over.
“The wedding goes ahead,” he says.
I slowly rise to my feet.
“And if I refuse?”
He glances back at me.
“You won’t.”
His certainty almost makes me laugh.
“Why? Because my parents told you I’d obey?”
“Because you’re carrying my child.”
The words tear through me.
He still believes I am pregnant.
He does not know the clinic report was fake. He does not know Luca gave me the original result.
For the first time tonight, I am the one holding the truth.
I force myself to look frightened.
“You think a baby gives you the right to control me?”
“It gives you a responsibility to stop acting like a jealous teenager.”
“A jealous teenager?” My voice shakes. “You’ve been sleeping with my sister for five years.”
“Vanessa is not part of this marriage.”
“She was in your bed tonight.”
“And three days from now, you’ll be my wife.”
He says it without shame.
I look at him as if I cannot understand.
“Why marry me at all?”
His eyes narrow.
“Because our families spent years arranging this.”
There it is.
Not love. Not loyalty.
An arrangement.
“The Vale name gives the Carters access to donors your family has cultivated for decades,” he continues. “My position at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office is only the beginning. I need a wife with a clean reputation and the right connections.”
“And Vanessa isn’t suitable?”
His jaw tightens.
“Vanessa is Daniel’s widow.”
Daniel.
Even hearing the name makes something shift in Ethan’s face.
His older brother has been dead for three years, but Ethan still speaks of him like a threat.
“People sympathize with her,” he says. “That sympathy disappears the moment they learn she was sleeping with her dead husband’s brother.”
“So you protect her reputation by marrying me.”
“I protect everyone’s reputation.”
“No. You use me to hide what the two of you have done.”
He steps closer.
“I am offering you a good life, Serena. A respected husband. Money. Status. A secure future for your child. Most women would be grateful.”
“Then marry one of them.”
His expression darkens.
“If you cancel the wedding now, people will ask questions. The press will dig into Vanessa. They’ll drag Daniel’s name through every headline and destroy what remains of her life.”
His concern is still for her.
Always her.
“What about my life?”
“You’ll recover.”
The answer comes too quickly.
Nine years reduced to two careless words.
I swallow the pain before it reaches my face.
“And if I tell everyone the truth?”
Ethan grips my chin and forces me to look at him.
“You won’t.”
His thumb presses into the bruise forming beneath my cheekbone.
“If you expose Vanessa, you humiliate your own family. You damage my career. You destroy the future of your unborn child.”
His voice drops.
“Your parents will deny everything. Vanessa will cry. I’ll say grief and wedding stress made you unstable.”
My blood runs cold.
He has already planned how to silence me.
“And who do you think people will believe?” he asks. “A Manhattan prosecutor and two respected families, or a hysterical bride trying to ruin her own wedding?”
I hold his gaze.
He smiles when I do not answer.
“That’s what I thought.”
He releases me.
“Get some sleep. Your mother will take you to the fitting tomorrow.”
He walks toward the bedroom, then pauses.
“And cover your face. We don’t need anyone asking questions.”
The bedroom door closes behind him.
I remain still until I hear the shower turn on.
Then I reach into the pocket of my robe.
My phone is still recording.
I started the moment I heard the lock turn.
The screen shows thirty-two minutes of audio.
His affair with Vanessa.
The arrangement between our families.
The reason he needs to marry me.
His threat to destroy my credibility if I expose him.
I stop the recording and upload it to three separate accounts.
Then I rename the file.
ETHAN CARTER: CONFESSION ONE.
My hands are no longer shaking.
I open Luca’s message and type words.
I need everything you have.
His reply comes immediately.
Yes, my princess.