Golden Cage Mommy Mutiny (Elyse) novel Chapter 45

Chapter 2

I was sixteen when I was kidnapped by one of my father’s enemies, and when I escaped that night, I realized I’d stumbled into one of the city’s worst neighborhoods.

The streets were littered with cigarette butts, trash bags, and rats skittering out of the storm

drains.

Under a flickering streetlamp, a drunk man blocked my way until someone grabbed my shoulder and pulled me behind him.

The boy was eighteen–year–old Ethan, wearing a washed–out black T–shirt and taking a beer bottle

to the arm without making a sound.

Back then, I didn’t know then it was all a setup. I only saw a teenage girl’s idea of a hero.

So when my father arrived, I pointed at Ethan and said, “If you’re hiring me a bodyguard, I want

him.”

The title “bodyguard” was nothing but a label. Ethan had nothing except strength and grit, and I

needed an excuse to keep him close.

My father approved instantly, saying Ethan had a light in his eyes that meant he’d amount to

something.

He was right.

Two years later, we got into Summit Bay University together. When his acceptance letter came,

Ethan’s eyes

reddened.

“Chloe… I owe you and your dad my whole life. If you’ll let me, I want to stay by your side forever.”

Ethan woke at six every morning, rode an hour–long bus, and waited in line so I could have my favorite breakfast before my 8 a.m. class. He spent his entire paycheck on a brooch I’d casually complimented, but wore the same faded sweater for three years.

His backpack carried everything I might forget–painkillers, bandages, an umbrella, even pads. He treated me so well that even my father found nothing to criticize.

When we graduated, Ethan asked to join Wynn Corporation. My father hesitated, saying he owed us nothing. Ethan fell to his knees anyway.

“I know I’m not worthy,” he said. “But I love Chloe want the right to stay with her.”

I didn’t know then my father was already getting dragged into a deeper criminal mess. All I

remembered was the two of them talking for a long time behind closed doors before my father took my hand and placed it in Ethan’s.

“Protect my girl,” he said. “Keep her safe, clean, and dignified.”

Chapter 2

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By twenty–five, I finished grad school, and Ethan had become a core figure in the company. But the higher he rose, the stranger he behaved.

One night, while I was sketching, he stared at me and murmured, “Sometimes I want to give everything up for you.”

When I asked what he meant, he refused to explain.

When Dylan heard that, he joked, “Maybe he loves you enough to quit undercover work.”

I shook my head. “Doesn’t matter.” A moment of softness never changed his devotion to justice.

At twenty–six, Ethan proposed. We then got married.

On our wedding day, I stood in my white gown as he stepped forward, flashed his badge, and cuffed my father.

Dylan asked, “On your wedding day? Did you at least slap him?”

I shook my head. “Didn’t get the chance. He left–with my maid of honor.”

“Your maid of honor? Who?”

“His current wife.”

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