My Husband’s First Love Became My New Boss and Fired Me — She Had No Idea Who Really Owned the Company
Chapter 3
Olivia read the documents three times.
She checked another.
Then another.
The evidence was overwhelming.
Sterling Meridian Holdings controlled the parent company.
Ethan was the majority shareholder.
He had never told her.
She walked into the living room.
“How long?”
Ethan looked up.
He knew immediately.
“You found them.”
“How long?”
He slowly stood.
“Almost eight years.”
“Eight years?”
“Yes.”
“You own Sterling Meridian.”
“Yes.”
Olivia stared.
The man she had married had never been an ordinary financial consultant.
He had been quietly running the company through private holding structures.
She felt betrayed.
Not because of the money.
Because he had trusted her with his life but not his truth.
“Why?”
Ethan looked down.
“Because of my family.”
She crossed her arms.
“My family has always been wealthy.”
“I know.”
“They’ve had problems.”
“I know.”
“When I was younger, everyone wanted something from me.”
He explained that his father had built the company and hidden ownership through trusts to avoid hostile competitors.
When Ethan inherited control, he continued the structure.
He wanted to live normally.
No bodyguards.
No headlines.
No people pretending to love him because of money.
He had met Olivia while working at one of his own companies.
She had never known.
“You could have told me.”
“I wanted to.”
“When?”
“The right time.”
She laughed bitterly.
“You’ve had eight years.”
“I was afraid.”
“Of me?”
“Of losing you.”
Olivia stared at him.
“You thought I’d change because you’re rich?”
“People change.”
“You don’t know that.”
He stepped closer.
“I know you.”
She shook her head.
“Then you should have trusted me.”
Ethan didn’t defend himself.
He knew she was right.
Then Olivia asked:
“Did Victoria know?”
“No.”
“Does she know now?”
“I don’t think so.”
Olivia sat down.
Suddenly, her husband’s old silences made sense.
The private calls.
The unexplained meetings.
The mysterious documents.
She looked at him.
“Why did you let her fire me?”
“I didn’t know.”
“You can stop it.”
“I can.”
“Then why haven’t you?”
Ethan looked at her.
“Because I wanted to see whether she had a reason.”
Olivia frowned.
“What reason?”
“I don’t know yet.”
He walked toward the window.
“But I’m going to find out.”
Because Victoria Monroe had not simply fired Olivia.
She had done something that made no sense.
She had taken deliberate action against the wife of a man she didn’t know owned the company.
And Ethan wanted to know why.
