Due Process (Sin & Redemption #3)

Chapter 1

STELLA

I slipped into the elevator and pressed the button for the top floor of Stella Financial Management.

Felix, my husband, had named his company—the whole organisation—after me. “After our love,” he’d said.

We were fresh out of college, bursting with overzealous dreams and the indestructible ideals of youth. After many trials and tribulations, our business, which had begun at ground level, was now considered one of the most respected financial institutions in the sporting world.

As expected, with any success came more pressure and added responsibilities. And since Felix was the CEO, he held the majority of that stress on his broad, thick shoulders.

A shiver ran down my spine as my thoughts spun wayward, thinking about the rest of his body.

My husband had been working hard the past six months—both early mornings and endless nights. And I was caught running after our two sons, eleven and two, which meant we hardly got any adult time together.

It was no one’s fault. That was just what happened with work and kids. Priorities changed, and all the days seemed to mesh into one.

Hence why I was on my way to Felix’s office at nine-thirty in the evening for a surprise visit.

I had left the boys with a babysitter, got dressed in my power skirt suit—the one with the slit that made Felix froth—and wore my black stilettos like I was going to dominate him.

Which, in all honesty, I wasn’t opposed to.

We had been neglecting each other for far too long, and Mama had a certain itch she had to scratch.

The elevator doors opened to empty, dark hallways, providing a certain alluring, angsty element that only heightened my excitement.

With each step closer, lust thickened in my veins. We used to be adventurous and frequently played out some risky behaviours in the past. Back then, we couldn’t keep our hands off each other.

I was ready to bring back that spark, more than willing to corner my husband against his desk and show him how much I’d missed him.

But as I turned the last corner, my eyes caught on the single light illuminating his office within.

It was a clear shot—one that could not be obscured or mistaken for anything other than what it was.

Instead of working, my husband, Felix Johnson, thought he’d become a middle-aged, mid-life-crisis, greying-haired cliché and fuck his young, blonde secretary.

And you know what was ironic? She looked like a cheap knock-off version of me, just a decade younger.

Oh, this hurts.

They were so confident and enthralled in their passions that they hadn’t even bothered closing the door. Heather leant over his desk as he railed her from behind. Her theatrical moans were laughable, but that was not what grabbed my focus.

Felix’s sole attention was on his condomed dick that disappeared inside her, his expressive face filled with sick enjoyment and desire-soaked eyes—like he loved that tasteless shit, like he lived for it.

I stood frozen, my entire soul breaking as I catalogued each discretion like a never-ending list in my head.

Felix touched her with hands that belonged to me.

Felix grunted filthy pleasured words that belonged to me.

Felix satisfied her with his dick that belonged to me.

“Take all of it, you dirty little slut. You like being fucked like this, don’t you?”

“Yes, Bossman, yes.”

My body slumped against the wall. I refused to buckle to my knees. Each groan he gave felt like a bullet ripping through my heart.

I was mortally wounded, fucking bleeding out on the carpet—not that they cared or noticed.

Torturous seconds ticked by that felt like hours as I remained in my comatose state, frozen in a never-ending scene stripped from my worst nightmares.

The final blow came when Felix began to jerk uncontrollably. “Fuck, fuck. Fuck. I’m coming.”

Agonising pain ripped through my nervous system as I watched my husband of nearly ten years come inside another woman.

A loving marriage, two beautiful sons and a lifetime of memories—all stained and ruined for the thrill of a cheap, second-rate office affair.

I’d seen enough.

Gathering what little courage I had left, my spine straightened, and my feet silently led me away from the crime scene—the massacre where the previous Stella Johnson remained.

I wasn’t one for showboating or letting my emotions take over in a raging fit of anger.

No.

I was calculated. Resourceful. And the worst fucking villain if you happened to get on my bad side.

There was a reason I was the general counsel and head lawyer of the entire company, and it wasn’t nepotism.

Looks like the bigwig CEO forgot who I am. I’ll happily remind him.

I was more than a wife and mother. I was a motherfucking girl boss. And it felt like the perfect time to return from two years of maternity leave and reestablish my role in the family business.

Two months was the official countdown to our ten-year anniversary, and most importantly, the expiry on our ironclad prenup commissioned by his rich, obnoxious father.

And just like his daddy dearest, Felix was about to find himself aging alone.

We were supposed to grow old together.

I killed a sob in my throat that threatened to escape. I had to find refuge somewhere I could break apart. Truly break down.

Then, once I released all that energy, once I processed the worst moment of my entire life, I’d plan.

I’d let those horrid memories play on repeat in my head—brand the fucking image into my brain—just to ensure I never forgot the feelings he had instilled in me.

I would let them bolster my hatred and disgust until all the love I once had was replaced only with betrayal.

Felix Johnson once belonged to me. Now, she could have him.

As of two minutes before, my sights had turned from the clown king and outward to the empire.

Our children, his money, the business—it was all going to be mine.