Chapter 3

3.

"If I hadn't come back, would you be celebrating? You'd never have to worry about me finding out about the mistress you keep on the side."

The moment words left my mouth, Jonas's pupils dilated, and the color drained from his face.

"Mallory, you… you know?"

So Paige really was his hidden woman.

Blinding rage consumed me. I lunged forward and grabbed him by the collar.

"Jonas, our son is five years old! How could you do this to me? How could you betray our family like this?"

He panicked, wrapping his arms around me in desperation. "Mallory, listen to me, let me explain!"

"My marriage to Paige was purely a business arrangement! Her family is loaded, and she was the only one who could bail my company out of bankruptcy!"

"Then let's get a divorce right now."

As soon as the word left my lips, a cold realization struck me.

Jonas and I never officially filed a marriage license at City Hall.

What right did I have to demand a divorce?

What a cruel, sick joke. After all these years, I was the illegitimate mistress.

Back then, we only had a private wedding ceremony. He told me his strict parents opposed our marriage, so he couldn't access his legal family documents.

He swore up and down that he would wear his parents down over time and make our marriage official.

I believed him. I believed his lies for six whole years.

Coming back to my senses, tears poured down my cheeks as I violently shoved him away.

"Jonas, you kept me in the dark and turned me into your side chick for six years! I don't even have the legal standing to divorce you!"

"No, baby, that's not true! I didn't mean to! I love you so much, but I couldn't divorce Paige without ruining my business, so I had no choice!"

His face was filled with frantic desperation, terrified that I was slipping away.

All these years, he really had treated me with utmost devotion.

Even though he was constantly traveling for business, I had felt completely content and loved.

Now I finally understood that those business trips were never about work. He was flying off to play the doting husband to Paige!

"Jonas, juggling two women in two different beds all these years―weren't you exhausted?"

Agony washed over his features as he tumbled out of bed and dropped to his knees before me.

"Mallory, my back was against the wall! Without her family's financial backing, my entire empire would have collapsed!"

"You have to believe me, Paige is just a signature on a piece of paper! My heart has always belonged to you!"

My chest felt like it was being crushed, tears blurring my vision.

"You disgust me, Jonas!"

"We're through. Give me back my son!"

Earlier today, I was ready to abandon my own child just to follow Jonas into the grave.

Now, there was no way in hell I would die for a manipulative bastard like him.

All I wanted was to find my little boy and spend the rest of my life making it up to him.