The penthouse felt different after Ethan's phone call with his father. The space that had felt romantic now felt dangerous, like they were standing in an elevator that could stop at any moment. Sophia moved through the apartment carefully, aware that every conversation they had might be monitored, every moment they shared might be analyzed by people who wanted to pull them apart.
That night, she made a decision. She needed to understand Ethan's family, needed to see if she could determine whether his father was a genuine threat or just a concerned patriarch trying to protect his son's interests. She needed to know if the marriage was built on love or if it was just another strategic move in a larger game.
The next morning, she told Ethan she was going to his family's estate for lunch. She made it clear that she wanted to go alone, that she needed to build a relationship with his mother independent of him. It was a reasonable request, the kind of thing that made sense in a real marriage. What she didn't tell him was that she planned to use the opportunity to investigate whether his family was behind the threatening message.
The Blake family estate was located in Connecticut, a sprawling property that had been in the family for four generations. The main house was Georgian architecture at its finest, with formal gardens that were maintained by a staff of gardeners. Sophia arrived at noon, dressed carefully in a Chanel suit that signaled she understood the importance of making a good impression.
Ethan's mother, Catherine Blake, greeted her at the door. She was in her sixties, with silver hair styled perfectly and the kind of posture that came from generational wealth. Her smile was warm but calculated, the smile of a woman who'd spent decades navigating the treacherous waters of high society.
"Sophia, darling. I'm so glad you came. Ethan speaks about you constantly." Catherine led her through the house to a conservatory overlooking the gardens.
"That's kind of him to say. I know this marriage came as a surprise to everyone." Sophia settled into the chair Catherine offered, accepting a glass of iced tea with lemon.
"Actually, it came as less of a surprise to us than you might think." Catherine smiled mysteriously. "Did Ethan not tell you about the contract?"
The casual way she asked the question suggested she already knew the answer. Sophia decided that honesty was safer than pretense. "He did tell me. Eventually."
"And how do you feel about it?"
"I feel many things. Confused. Manipulated. Grateful that my grandmother thought ahead, even if I didn't understand it at the time."
Catherine nodded like Sophia had confirmed something she'd already suspected. "The contract was my mother-in-law's idea, you know. Margaret called me years ago and asked if we'd be interested in such an arrangement. She thought you and Ethan were destined to be together, but she was worried you'd be too stubborn to find each other on your own."
"It was presumptuous."
"It was. But Margaret wasn't wrong about her assessment of your personality." Catherine set her tea down carefully. "I'm also told that you've discovered some irregularities in Blake Ventures' financial practices."
Sophia's stomach dropped. The fact that Catherine knew about the fraud investigation meant one of two things. Either Ethan had told his mother about the discovery, or Catherine had known about the fraud all along and was testing Sophia to see what she'd do about it.
"Who told you I was investigating your family's business practices?"
"My husband. He said you were smart enough to figure it out, and he wanted to give me a heads up that you might be the type of woman who uses information as leverage. He wanted to make sure I understood that our new daughter-in-law could potentially become a threat to our business interests."
There it was. The confirmation that Ethan's father saw her as a competitor, not as a family member. That her marriage to Ethan didn't change the fundamental dynamics of business and power.
"I'm not using information as leverage," Sophia said carefully. "I'm trying to understand if the man I married is someone I can trust."
"Can you? Trust him, I mean." Catherine picked up her tea and took a sip. "Because from where I'm sitting, you married him because of a contract your grandmother put in place ten years ago. You didn't choose him. He was chosen for you. And now you're discovering that the family you married into might not be as ethical as you'd like them to be. So really, the question is whether you'll stay loyal to Ethan or whether you'll protect yourself by exposing his family's business practices."
"That's not a fair question."
"It's the only question that matters. Because eventually, you're going to have to choose. You're going to have to decide if your marriage is real or if it's just a contract that temporarily aligned your interests with ours." Catherine smiled, and for the first time, Sophia understood where Ethan got his predatory business instinct. It ran in the family. "And I'm betting you'll choose yourself. People always do."
Sophia left the estate an hour later, having learned nothing concrete but having learned everything that mattered. The message Ethan's father had refused to explain came from someone in the Blake family circle. They were testing her loyalty. They were trying to create space between her and Ethan. They were treating her marriage like a business negotiation instead of a genuine relationship.
She drove back to the city in a rage. Not at Ethan, but at his family. And at herself for letting his family's manipulations affect her trust in him. By the time she reached the penthouse, she'd made a decision.
She was going to expose Blake Ventures' acquisition fraud, but she was going to do it carefully. She was going to protect Ethan while still doing the right thing. She was going to report the financial irregularities to the SEC in a way that would trigger an investigation but wouldn't specifically target him.
She spent the evening in her office, documenting everything Marcus had found. She created a detailed report of Blake Ventures' acquisition patterns, their inflated valuations, and the complex financial arrangements that supported these acquisitions. She included recommendations for how the SEC should approach the investigation.
By midnight, she had the report ready. By 12:30 AM, she'd sent it to an SEC contact she'd developed years ago.
She told herself it was the right thing to do. She told herself that exposing corporate fraud was her civic duty. She told herself that Ethan would understand.
But as she lay in bed next to him hours later, watching him sleep, she knew she'd just made a choice that was going to destroy everything she'd built with him. Because when the SEC investigation started, when Blake Ventures came under scrutiny, Ethan would figure out who'd reported them. And he would know that she'd chosen the greater good over protecting the man she was married to.
She was stealing his trust to preserve her integrity. Whether the trade was worth it would depend on what happened next.
The next morning, her phone buzzed with a news alert. The SEC had announced they were investigating Blake Ventures for potential acquisition fraud. The investigation would be comprehensive, involving interviews with company leadership and financial audits of all recent transactions.
Ethan was in the shower when the news broke. Sophia watched him emerge from the bathroom, still dripping water, reading the headline on his phone. His face went through a series of transformations. Shock. Betrayal. Rage. And then, finally, understanding.
He looked at her.
"You reported us," he said. It wasn't a question.
"I had to."
"You reported my family to destroy my company."
"I reported financial fraud to the SEC."
"It's the same thing."
She couldn't argue with him because he was right. She'd known that reporting them would trigger an investigation that would consume Blake Ventures and poison his family's reputation. She'd done it anyway. She'd chosen her integrity over their marriage.
"I'm sorry," she said.
"No, you're not. You're sorry you got caught doing what you were always going to do. You're sorry I'm finding out that the woman I married is still the same competitive, ruthless woman I met in business school."
He was dressed and out of the penthouse within fifteen minutes. He didn't slam the door or create a dramatic exit. He just left quietly, like someone leaving a crime scene.
Sophia stood in the empty penthouse and realized that she'd just made the choice Catherine had predicted she'd make. She'd protected herself over her marriage. She'd chosen her integrity over her husband.
But as she sat in the silence of the apartment they'd shared, she began to understand that there might have been another way. A way that protected both her marriage and her ethics. A way that required trusting Ethan enough to tell him what she was going to do before she did it.
By refusing to do that, she'd made the decision for both of them.
Her phone buzzed. It was a message from an unknown number: "He deserved better than you."