BOUND BY LIES A BILLIONAIRE CONTRACT BRIDE

Elena pov

The coffee's gone cold in my cup but I can't seem to care, my fingers hover over my phone screen as I stare at the notification that just shattered my morning into a thousand pieces.

Billionaire Alexander Harrington Spotted Leaving Hotel with Mystery Woman at 3 AM.

The headline screams at me and I click it even though every part of me knows I shouldn't.

My name is Elena Martin-Harrington, twenty-seven years old, wife to one of New York's most powerful billionaires, mother to a beautiful,

three-year-old boy, and apparently the most pathetic woman in Manhattan.

The photo loads and there he is, my husband, Alexander Harrington in all his six-foot-two glory, walking out of The Plaza with a brunette so stunning she could be a model.

His hand is on the small of her back, that same possessive gesture he uses with me at public events except this time it's three in the morning and there are no cameras he knew about.

Or so he thought.

My hands shake as I scroll through the comments.

Poor Elena, I always knew that marriage was fake.

She's just a trophy wife, He married her for appearances and now he doesn't even bother hiding his affairs.

Each word is a knife and I'm bleeding out right here at this breakfast table in this cold mansion that's never felt like home.

I click to another gossip site, the photos are everywhere, different angles, same story.

Alexander and the mystery woman, she's laughing at something he said and that's what kills me most because I can't remember the last time I made him smile.

Four years, I've been his wife for four years and I still feel like a stranger in his life.

The memory hits me without warning, our wedding day, I was twenty-three and desperate.

my world had fallen apart two years before when my parents died in that fire and Alexander's father had offered me a lifeline wrapped in a contract: Marry Alexander for five years, play the perfect wife, help stabilize the Harrington empire after some scandal I didn't understand

In return I'd get financial security and a chance to rebuild my life.

It seemed simple then, just five years and I'd be free.

But that was before I fell pregnant, before Julian came into the world, before everything got so complicated I can't see a way out anymore.

I remember standing in that beautiful Vera Wang gown, feeling like a fraud as hundreds of guests smiled and took photos.

The ceremony was perfect, the reception was flawless, but afterwards Alexander drove me to his father's office where we signed the real papers, the contract that bound me to him, his father had smiled like he'd won something and maybe he had.

Alexander hadn't even looked at me, he'd just signed his name and walked away.

That should have been my first warning.

The sound of a car pulling into the driveway makes my heart slam against my ribs, he's home.

Alexander never comes home for breakfast, he leaves before I wake up and returns long after I've gone to bed, but today of all days he's here and I don't know if I'm ready for this confrontation.

"Mama," Julian's sweet voice calls out as he runs into the kitchen, his dark curls bouncing, those gray eyes so much like his father's sparkling with joy.

"Mama, I'm hungry."

I shove my phone face-down on the table and paste on a smile.

"Good morning baby, what do you want for breakfast?"

"Pancakes," he giggles and climbs onto the chair beside me, "with chocolate."

"Chocolate pancakes coming right up," I say but my voice sounds hollow even to my own ears.

The front door opens and closes, footsteps echo through the marble hallway, each step feels like a countdown to an explosion I can't stop.

Alexander walks into the kitchen and my breath catches because it's not fair that he looks this good after being out all night.

His tailored navy suit fits him perfectly, not a hair out of place, his sharp jaw clean-shaven, those steel-gray eyes cold as always.

Alexander Harrington, thirty-three, CEO of Harrington Global, Manhattan's most eligible bachelor until I came along, over six feet of controlled power and calculated ambition, the man I married, the man I share a son with, the man I don't know at all.