Watch Me Win, Alpha

1 locked eyes with Ava, and her surprise mirrored mine.

The recording ended abruptly with the sound of stomping feet.

“Is that Ethan storming away from Chloe?” I asked.

“I assume so. Isn’t it strange how rude and disgusted he seems towards his former mistress and future bride?”

I nodded in agreement.

“There’s something else the device caught too,” Ava said as her thumbs moved over her phone screen. “It’s from a conversation that Chloe had with her future mother–in–law, Amelia.”

“Ethan’s mother,” I said in a low voice. “My former mother–in–law.”

Ava squeezed my shoulder. “Yes. It’s from after a dinner at the Hawthorne estate. Amelia and Chloe seem to be having a conversation in the garden.”

I nodded for her to play the recording.

“Please, can you just speak to your son,” Chloe’s voice said through the phone speakers. Her tone was full of anguish. “He’s been so cruel to me lately. I just love him so much. Why can’t he be kind to me?”

“I will not speak to him,” Amelia replied. Her cold voice sent a shiver through my body. It was an indifferent tone I knew all too well. “You don’t have to marry my son if you don’t like the way he treats you.”

“I’ll tell people what I know if you push me too far, Amelia,” Chloe

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go on in the Hawthorne family. I know that your husband has a mistress overseas and that he has an illegitimate nineteen–year–old child who will jump at the chance to move here and compete with Ethan to inherit the Hawthorne fortune. If that happens, your place in this family will be jeopardized. Your luxurious life will go down the drain with just one phone call. Are you

dropped

indignation. “You nasty girl! How dare you threaten me like that! I knew that you were an evil

sticking up for me. I

of your son if

countered.

that your pregnancy is fake! I know that you are only using

*Olivia*

the hair on the back of my neck raise. “You can’t expose my secrets, especially

other things do you think you

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girl?” Ameila asked.

could hear a slight tremor in her voice. Ethan’s mom was terrified of what else Chloe knew about

are…unflattering to say the least,” Chloe said,

J

“What kind

answer the older woman’s question.