“I’m sorry,” I murmured into his chest.

He tilted my chin up. “You don’t have to be. Just don’t ever shut me out again.”

“I won’t.”

His mouth found mine before I could say anything else. The kiss wasn’t rushed. It was deep and anchoring. Like he needed to taste every part of my defiance and still claim it as his. His hands didn’t grope; they worshipped. His touch didn’t demand; it devoured in the most reverent way.

He lifted me in one fluid motion, carried me to the bedroom, and made love to me like he wasn’t trying to prove anything, only to remind me who I belonged to. And for once, that didn’t scare me. It thrilled me.

Because in his arms, I wasn’t just Pearl, the girl Jacob used, the friend Lavenia envied, the heiress no one wanted to understand. I was his queen. And Sebastian Montgomery had no intention of ever letting me forget it.

The morning Sebastian’s company identified the mole, he didn’t even flinch. I watched from the corner of his suite—high above Maui’s coastline, the ocean a pale blue backdrop to a war room of men in suits, code analysts, and a very pale junior exec who looked like he was about to pass out.

Sebastian didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t slam the table. He didn’t need to. His power wasn’t noise; it was precision.

“So,” he said, swirling the espresso in his glass like he had all the time in the world. “You let Jacob Wright wire you six figures to upload ransomware onto Montgomery servers. That’s brave.”

The man stammered. “I—I needed the money. He threatened my family. I didn’t think—”

“No, you didn’t.” Sebastian stood slowly, buttoned his blazer, and gave a cold smile that could freeze lava. “Which is why you’re going to sign a full confession, cooperate with our legal team, and then disappear before I decide to make this public.”

The mole nodded so fast I thought his neck might snap. And Sebastian? He didn’t even watch him leave. He turned to Marcus, his head of acquisitions, and said calmly, “Buy out Wright’s last remaining partner. Pay double the share value if needed. Make it public. I want headlines by noon.”

I smiled. He was lethal. Calm. Merciless. And God, it was wildly attractive.

The man who held me like silk in bed was the same man who carved up empires in daylight—clean, sharp, efficient.

“Remind me never to cross you,” I murmured when we were alone.

He looked at me from his desk, dark eyes gleaming. “You couldn’t, even if you tried. I’m already too far gone for you, Pearl.”

“And here I thought I was the dangerous one,” I teased.

“You are,” he said, standing and walking toward me. “Just not to me.”

He cupped my waist and kissed the side of my head, and I melted until my phone buzzed. And then everything shifted.

I read the notification. Then read it again. Lavenia Jones posted a new reel: “Whore in Silk—the truth behind a billionaire’s wife.”

I clicked it. I shouldn’t have. But I did. There she was…in a cheap silk robe, hair wild, mascara smudged, speaking to the camera like a rejected soap opera villain.

“She wasn’t always classy,” Lavenia said, pouting. “Pearl Montgomery is a fraud. She slept with Jacob. Then Luther…Then Sebastian. Same week. Rowing three boats, hoping one turns into a yacht. And guess what? It worked.”

She laughed bitterly. “She killed my dog. My poor Sasha. Pearl said she was pathetic. Who says that about a dog? A psychopath, that’s who.”

It cut to her holding a photo of me in high school, one I never shared, while thousands of comments flooded the post.

“Gold-digger energy.” “Poor dog…” “Didn’t Lavenia have a breakdown at boarding school?” “Sebastian’s wife is actually a whore?”

I set the phone down slowly. The walls didn’t cave in. Because I wouldn’t let them.

I looked up to see Sebastian’s jaw clench as he read the post over my shoulder.

“You okay?” he asked, voice like iron wrapped in velvet.

I exhaled. “She’s unhinged. But she’s also predictable. This? This is her brand of desperation.”

He watched me for a long beat, and then he pulled me into his chest. Not gentle—firm.

“She wants a war. She’ll get one,” he said. “But under my rules.”

“She’s not my problem anymore, Sebastian. I’m not the scared girl she used to trample. She can scream into her cracked phone screen all she wants. I’m not hiding.”

He tilted my chin up. “Then we’ll handle this our way. Legally. Brutally. Quietly. No one slanders my wife without bleeding for it.”

I smirked. “Now that’s the Sebastian I married.”

“And I plan on reminding you every day why you did.”

His lips met mine again, fierce and grounding. I felt paparazzi buzz outside, flashes going off against the glass like vultures circling the latest scandal.

The private jet touched down at Heathrow just as the rain started. As if London itself wept in anticipation. Or maybe in warning.

I stepped off in full war regalia: a crimson structured coat with razor-cut shoulders over a backless sable dress that clung like armor. My heels hit the tarmac like gunshots. The paparazzi were already swarming, flashes wild, shouting my name like vultures begging for blood.

“Pearl! Over here!” “Is it true you killed her dog?” “Is Sebastian Montgomery really backing you?” “Did you sleep with both brothers?”

I didn’t flinch. I walked straight through them like smoke through bullets. Head high. Eyes like glass. Giving nothing away. Next to me, Sebastian adjusted the cuff of his navy trench, unbothered by the chaos. He leaned closer as we reached the car, whispering into my ear: “London media will eat what you feed them. Make them choke on gold.”

I smiled faintly. “Darling, I plan to feed them fire.”