The Innocent Trap: She's Mine Now

I ripped the pearl earring right off her lobe.

Drops of blood instantly welled up from the torn flesh.

My husband's latest little pet had just stubbornly called me Miss Sinclair. In love, the one who isn't loved is the real homewrecker, she had said.

Julian appeared right at that moment. His jaw was locked tight.

She immediately forced tears into her eyes, playing the ultimate victim. "Mr. Hawthorne, please don't be angry. Miss Sinclair probably didn't mean to."

Julian walked right past her like she was completely invisible. He stepped into my space and took my hand in his. He blew softly on my fingertips, his brow furrowed in deep distress. "Abby, does your hand hurt?"

The girl's tears spilled over, absolute disbelief written across her face.

Chapter 1

Kelsey was dragged out by Julian's secretary. She looked like she had a million things she desperately needed to say. She probably couldn't comprehend how the man who had been whispering sweet nothings to her yesterday could turn into this ice-cold stranger today.

Julian's devotion to me wasn't an act. He noticed a faint, barely-there red mark on my finger and pressed his lips against it, over and over. "Abby, a woman like that isn't worth dirtying your own hands." The dark depths of his eyes held a hint of disapproval.

I looked at him, my expression completely flat. His reaction didn't surprise me in the slightest.

We were childhood sweethearts. He was never a gentle man by nature, yet he wrapped me in nothing but absolute patience and consideration.

Julian genuinely loved me.

Daphne always said that in legacy families, loyalty was treated as a disgrace. When money inflated to such an obscene level, expecting a man to stay entirely faithful was a pipe dream. For most arranged marriages, just keeping up appearances was considered a massive win.

But Daphne had seen Julian carefully cut my food. She had seen the way a smile instinctively pulled at his lips the second my name was mentioned.

He cared about me. Deeply.

Just not a hundred percent.

At his level of power, not having a few gorgeous distractions clinging to his arm was considered the real anomaly. To Daphne, the occasional pretty little plaything Julian kept on the side was practically nothing. It was just too common. When absolute filth became the standard, a clean slate was the freakish exception.

Julian cooked dinner that night.

It was incredibly rare for a man as young and successful as him to roll up his sleeves in a kitchen. Even my notoriously picky mother couldn't stop singing his praises. Everyone seemed to envy me. I had the vast majority of Julian's heart and his absolute indulgence.

All I had to do was frown, and he would make whatever bothered me disappear from the face of the earth.

He meticulously cut my steak into bite-sized pieces. I lowered my gaze, chewing slowly.

His phone kept lighting up on the table.

I reached out my hand on instinct. He assumed I wanted a sip from his wine glass and thoughtfully slid it toward me. When he realized my fingers were aiming for his phone, he simply let out a low chuckle. He picked up a linen napkin, methodically wiped his hands, and handed the device right over to me.

"Wife, it's rare for you to actually check up on me." The amusement in his eyes was entirely genuine.

Chapter 2

Julian never really bothered hiding his side pieces from me. Probably because no one else in our social circle even bothered pretending anymore. He treated his wife with absolute respect, always putting her first.

Even my own parents operated the exact same way. They had their own entirely separate lives outside the estate. I knew of at least a few half-siblings scattered around the city.

Since my mother never had a son, she simply handpicked one of the decent illegitimate ones to inherit the family empire. The boy respected my mother and actually looked out for me like a real sister.

In these legacy blue-blood families, loyalty was a punchline. No matter how polite the surface veneer, the foundation was entirely rotten.

I unlocked the phone and scrolled through the contacts. Kelsey was already gone.

I kept scrolling. Harper. She had been clinging to Julian's side for a while now. I knew of her.

She was the picture of perfect, submissive obedience. Whenever she saw me, she shrank back like a terrified little mouse. She kept her posture low. As low as possible.

Julian appreciated her tact. It earned her excellent resources in the industry. Just a few days ago, I ran into her at a jewelry gala.

I attended as Mrs. Hawthorne, with Julian anchoring my right side. Harper was seated across from us, wearing a stunning diamond necklace. She was subtly putting it on display for me.

I let my eyes linger on the diamonds for a second longer than necessary. Julian bought it immediately.

Harper came over to gently thank me. She knew exactly how to play the game. She didn't linger, and she certainly didn't strut over to rub it in my face.

That night, Julian picked up on my microscopic shift in mood. He leaned in close to my ear and whispered, "You don't like her? I'll swap her out right now." The devotion in his dark eyes wasn't faked. He would completely discard anyone who brought me the slightest displeasure.

I smiled, the corners of my eyes crinkling. "Julian, aren't you being a little too sensitive?"

I had always called him by his first name. When we were young, I used to ride on the back of his bicycle. The wind would catch his shirt, and I would press my cheek flat against his spine. It smelled like sunshine.

It was the very first flutter of a crush. The absolute root of love.

Julian patted my hand. In the dim lighting, his tone dripped with a heavy, honeyed nostalgia. "Abby, I constantly think about how far we've come."

I didn't say a word. I just stared silently out into the distance.

He didn't sleep in my bed that night. He told me there was an emergency at the firm. I calmly smoothed the lapels of his suit jacket and watched him walk out the door.

Not long after, Daphne called. "Hey, I'm pretty sure I just spotted your Julian with my bastard husband, Hayes. Heard they ordered bottle service and a few girls."

She paused. "Don't worry though, your Julian isn't that unhinged. He usually sticks to just one at a time."

I sat in the dark for a second before clicking on the bedside lamp. "And how many male models did you order to your VIP booth?"

Daphne's bright laughter echoed through the speaker. "I used to invite you out, but you're such an outlier. You hate this scene. You don't understand the thrill of it."

"Abby, you need to open your eyes a little. It's better when couples play the same game. If one person stubbornly clings to loyalty, it just breeds resentment."

I remained completely silent.

Her voice softened slightly. "Abby, I know what you want. But you have to understand, once a man reaches a certain tax bracket, women throw themselves at him in droves."

"He's surrounded by constant ego-stroking. Keeping his hands clean is basically impossible."

"I haven't kept my hands perfectly clean either," I said softly.

Daphne let out a surprised little hum. The sudden spike of interest in her voice was palpable.

"You're keeping a boy toy too? Who? Spill it."

I opened my mouth to answer, but the heavy click of the front door echoing down the hall stopped me. I smiled. I tapped the red button and ended the call cleanly.

Chapter 3

I stood at the landing of the stairs, looking toward the entryway. Nolan stepped inside, his presence carrying a natural, aloof coolness. He flicked on the lights with familiar ease, kicked off his shoes, and walked in.

The young man's features were soft. When he saw me, a shy, easy smile broke across his face, and he signed a quick greeting with his hands.

I first met Nolan on a torrential rainy afternoon. It was the exact day I found out Julian was keeping someone else on the side. I was sitting on a cold metal bench inside a bus shelter. The rain blurred with the hot, stinging tears sliding off my jaw.

When you love someone with every fiber of your being, it breeds a sick, suffocating obsession. Hearing the news of his betrayal felt like shattered glass in my lungs. No matter how impeccably I was raised to keep my temper in check, the toxic acid of jealousy burned through my veins.

But I had seen this exact script play out too many times. My friends, my relatives, my own parentsthey had all set the most grotesque examples. Whenever the topic of infidelity came up, they brushed it off like dust on a designer coat. For the longest time, I felt like I was the defective one.

Even Daphne, the person who understood me best, couldn't wrap her head around my physical collapse. "Abby, the Hawthorne family is sitting on a three-hundred-billion-dollar empire, and Julian is the crown jewel," she had told me. "With that kind of status, expecting him not to have a few women circling him is just delusional."

Everyone told me to let it go. They argued that Julian's lack of absolute fidelity was just a minor flaw, completely harmless in the grand scheme of our marriage.

But I forced the agony down my throat, terrified of letting it out. I had seen what it did to my mother. I remembered the shattering of porcelain as she hurled vases across the marble floors, the betrayal twisting her naturally gentle spirit into something manic and sick.

Eventually, she started seeking her own hollow comfort outside the estate. First, it was pure, spiteful revenge. Then, it became an addiction.

I still remember the flush of artificial desire on her face when she told me that if I couldn't fight the current, I had to just let it drag me under.

That was when Nolan appeared in front of me, holding up an umbrella. He was tall, his knuckles pale and elegant where they gripped the handle. When he smiled, deep dimples carved into his cheeks.

I tilted my head up and viciously told him to get the hell out of my face.

He didn't seem to hear me. He just reached out, trying to press the umbrella into my trembling hands.

I hurled the most venomous, toxic words I could find at this total stranger.

Nolan just looked down at me, his expression perfectly serene. His eyes were like a vast, quiet ocean, absorbing all my chaos. After a long moment, he pulled out his phone, typed something, and turned the screen toward me.

[I am sorry, my hearing aids are out for repair today, so I cannot hear anything you are saying.]

His eyes curved into crescent moons.

The rest of my venom caught sideways in my throat. A heavy wave of sheer humiliation dropped into my stomach. I had just unleashed my worst self on this impossibly gentle boy.

The next time our paths crossed was in a university lecture hall. I had been invited as a distinguished alumna to give a keynote on the peaks and valleys of success. During the ribbon-cutting ceremony, I spotted him. He was there as a top-tier student, stepping up to take a commemorative photo with me.

Later, when my assistant handed me the printed photos, I stared at his face. His features were so mild, completely untouched by the ugliness of the world. I don't know what exactly possessed me, but I had my assistant track him down and deliver a top-of-the-line pair of hearing aids.

I was still lost in my thoughts when a gentle knock echoed against the tinted glass of my car window. Nolan stood outside, a simple backpack slung over his shoulder.

My assistant frowned, annoyed by the intrusion. I snapped at her to shut up.

The boy smiled and handed the ridiculously expensive velvet box right back to me. "Hello. This belongs to you."

He looked at me with absolute, peaceful clarity. And in that exact second, it hit me. He had absolutely no idea I was the pathetic, screaming woman from the rain.

Chapter 4

Since that day, I started showing up around Nolan more frequently. At first, I didn't have an endgame in mind. It was probably just that pure, untainted people were so incredibly rare in my orbit. Or maybe when your bank account hits a certain threshold, life just becomes suffocatingly dull, and you crave a new distraction.

Right around that time, Julian had found his second little pet. This one was a fiery, wear-her-heart-on-her-sleeve type of girl. He was still riding the high of a brand new thrill. He got so swept up in it that I barely even saw him anymore.

He even slipped up and mentioned her in front of me a few times. My chest seized. I shoved the burning fury down into a tight, dark box, chewing my food in dead silence while blindly staring at the television.

Julian reached over and smoothed his hand over my hair. "But Abby, the history we share that will always be entirely different."

I understood exactly what he meant. I knew he believed every single word. Our bond really was different.

I never once doubted the authenticity of his feelings for me. We came from the same elite world, cut from the same arrogant cloth.

I remembered kicking off my designer heels in a secluded stretch of grass, spinning recklessly under the moonlight. He had held my shoes with endless patience, his eyes filled with nothing but me. At our massive, obscene society wedding, he promised to love me forever.

He just conveniently left out the part where he promised to love only me.

Nolan was rigid by nature, everything strictly by the book. Before I even fully registered what was happening, I realized the boy was falling for me.

Every time I spoke to him, the tips of his ears flushed a bright red. I couldn't help but laugh one afternoon, asking if he wanted to come hear me play the piano.

It was the height of spring, the campus walkways lined with blooming cherry blossoms and scattered students. We walked for a long time. The back edge of the university bordered an old set of industrial train tracks where heavy freight cars constantly rolled through.

That afternoon, bathed in the fading gold of the sunset, the light danced across the sharp angle of his jaw. Behind us, the deafening roar of an approaching train shattered the air. Nolan reached out and brushed his fingers against mine. As if terrified the violent noise would startle me, he lifted both hands and firmly pressed them over my ears.

His fingertips were radiating heat.

Right at that moment, the boy parted his lips and said something.

I asked him what he said. He didn't answer.

Later, sitting in the back of my town car as it glided toward my estate, I pressed two fingers against my temple. A slow smile curved my lips. The truth was, shortly after meeting Nolan, I had picked up some basic sign language and lip-reading.

If I wasn't mistaken, the words that had formed on his mouth were, I like you.

His affection was so raw and sincere. It made me feel utterly vile. Because he didn't even know I had a husband waiting at home. Someone like him, as clean and brilliant as the moon, could never comprehend the unspoken, twisted games of legacy families.

For a long time, Nolan knew about my crippling insomnia. He would take a cab all the way to my estate just to sit and read to me until I finally fell asleep. We never crossed any physical lines.

Sometimes, out of a weird sense of self-destruction, I didn't even bother hiding the evidence of Julian in the house. But ironically, Julian's footprint in that massive home was barely there to begin with. He was too busy finding endless entertainment outside. Over time, we had become perfectly polite strangers living under the same roof, our cores completely detached.

Just like tonight. Nolan was sitting there, reading a story out loud to me, exactly like he always did.

Chapter 5

I was raised by a fleet of nannies. I knew my parents loved me, but I rarely actually felt it. The kids at my elite prep school started comparing trust funds by the time we were eight. Living such a ridiculously premature life meant I missed out on fairy tales completely.

I blinked up at Nolan. "So, the Huntsman wanted to kill Snow White, but let her go in the end. Would she forgive him?"

He answered a random question for me every single day. He didn't even pause to think. "Yes."

"Why?" I shot back. "If I were Snow White, I would never forgive him. Anyone who wanted me dead belongs in hell for eternity, rotting in the dark."

"But if someone realizes they lost their way and turns back, why don't they deserve forgiveness?" he asked, sitting barely two feet away.

I don't know what snapped inside my head in that exact second. Since the day I was born, anything that could be solved with money barely registered in my mind. People constantly kissed up to me, threw themselves at my feet, and played their twisted little games.

Some of them were completely unhinged, acting like laws didn't apply to them, indulging in the most depraved, adrenaline-chasing habits. I never participated, but I was surrounded by it for so long that I simply went numb to it all.

I suddenly sat up, tilted my head, and pressed my lips directly against Nolan's cheek.

The boy's pristine, pale skin instantly turned completely red. His eyes went wide and bright, pooling with a stunned, glassy sheen. "A-Abby"

A strange, suffocating warmth flooded my chest cavity. "Nolan, do you like me?"

The angry red flush bled all the way down his neck.

I genuinely didn't expect Julian to rush home. I was curled up under the warm glow of a reading lamp, swallowed in an oversized cashmere sweater.

He stepped inside and immediately scanned the perimeter of the room. Once he confirmed we were entirely alone, his shoulders dropped in relief. He walked over to me. He casually unclasped his watch, letting it slide off his wrist.

His voice was velvet soft. "I'm sorry, Abby. I wasn't entirely honest with you. I was actually out with Hayes tonight."

Hayes was Daphne's husband. I despised the man. Years ago, Daphne had been deeply in love with someone else. But in the ruthless world of blue-blood arranged marriages, a pulse was the absolute least important requirement.

Hayes completely destroyed the guy. He ruined him until the man had no choice but to flee the country. When the man left, he stubbornly begged Hayes to treat Daphne right.

He said she was the best girl in the world and deserved to be entirely cherished. He didn't blame Daphne, and he didn't even curse Hayes. He just packed his bags and left, taking nothing but a single paperback book Daphne had given him.

Daphne's life had been hell ever since. Hayes was a feral, untamed bastard. He married her to secure a corporate merger, but also just to put her in her place and break her spirit. Hayes's constant public humiliations never made Daphne shed a single tear.

But I had seen her break. The day that man boarded his flight, she locked herself in her bedroom and stared blankly up at the ceiling. The corners of her eyes were stained a brutal, hollow red.

But guys like Julian seemed to think basic human decency was just a trivial detail. Even though Julian knew exactly how cold I was toward Hayes, he never said a word about it. Deep down, he probably thought Hayes did absolutely nothing wrong.

When cruelty is the standard, monsters become the norm.

I flipped the page of my fairy tale book and let a soft smile touch my lips. "It's fine. It was for work."

Julian reached out, his hand hovering right over my forehead. But he was dragging the freezing night air with him, cut with the unmistakable, sickeningly sweet scent of someone else's perfume. He pulled his hand back. "I'm going to take a shower first."

The gentle smile was still lingering on his face as he turned around. Then his eyes locked onto the nightstand.

Sitting right there was a half-peeled orange.

In a fraction of a second, the temperature in the room plummeted to absolute zero.

Chapter 6