Cheated on me? I married a tycoon

Cheated on me? I married a tycoon.

NOVEL STATUS: COMPLETED

PUBLISHED CHAPTERS: 150+ CHAPTERS

Cheated on me? I married a tycoon – Sneak Peek

Ayla sat on the edge of the custom Italian leather sofa in the master bedroom of the Farrell estate. The glow of her laptop screen illuminated her face in the dim room as she scrolled through the PR itinerary for the Farrell Group’s upcoming week, double-checking every interview slot and press release.

Outside the heavy mahogany doors, the distinct, low growl of an Aston Martin engine cut through the quiet Atherton night.

The engine shut off.

Ayla immediately closed her laptop and set it on the glass coffee table. She stood and walked to the floor-to-ceiling mirror, smoothing her hands down the sides of her silk nightgown and adjusting the hem until it fell perfectly.

The heavy double doors to the bedroom swung open.

Axel walked in, bringing a rush of cold California night air with him. Ayla let a soft, practiced smile touch her lips and moved toward him, automatically reaching out to take his haute couture suit jacket as he slipped it from his shoulders.

As the heavy fabric settled into her hands, a scent hit her.

It was faint, but unmistakable — a heavy blend of sandalwood and crushed roses.

Ayla’s fingers stiffened against the wool lapels. Her movements stopped completely. She only ever used unscented, medical-grade skincare. She never wore perfume.

𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝖿r𝘦𝖾 ո𝘰𝗏e𝗅s on ga𝗅𝗇𝘰𝗏e𝗅𝘴.𝘤о𝗆

Axel didn’t notice her hesitation. He leaned in and pressed a dry, dismissive kiss to her forehead, then pulled back and lifted a hand to rub the bridge of his nose.

“The closed-door meeting with Sequoia Capital was a nightmare,” he muttered, his voice thick with exhaustion. “They never know when to stop talking.”

Ayla swallowed the hard lump forming in her throat and forced her lungs to draw in a breath. She turned away from him and walked into the climate-controlled walk-in closet, carefully hanging the jacket on a cedar hanger.

When she returned to the bedroom, Axel was standing at the edge of the bed. He yanked his silk tie loose with a frustrated sigh and tossed it carelessly onto the Persian rug, then turned his back to her and began unbuttoning his crisp white dress shirt, preparing to head into the master bathroom.

The shirt slid off his broad shoulders and dropped to the floor, exposing the tight muscles of his back.

Ayla’s eyes fell naturally on his left shoulder blade.

Her pupils contracted so fast it physically hurt.

The air in the room seemed to vanish. Her lungs stopped working.

There, stamped vividly across his left shoulder blade, were three dark red, raised scratches. The skin around them was inflamed, the edges slightly broken and bleeding. The spacing between the marks was exactly the width of a woman’s fingernails, and the downward angle and sheer force of the cuts made it impossible to mistake them for an accidental scrape against gym equipment.

Axel turned his head slightly. He caught her staring directly at his back.

For a fraction of a second, raw panic flashed in his deep brown eyes.

He moved instantly, grabbing a thick white towel from the bench and wrapping it tightly around his upper body to hide the marks.

“I scraped myself on a loose nail in the sauna at the club,” Axel said. His voice was perfectly steady, completely natural.

Ayla looked at his face — the face that had graced the cover of Time magazine, praised for having the most devoted, honest eyes in Silicon Valley.

Her stomach violently turned over. Acid rushed up her throat.

She didn’t scream. She didn’t throw anything.

Instead, she forced the muscles in her face to stretch into a stiff, unnatural smile.

– Continue in A Cheated on me? I married a tycoon  chapter 1 –