The Undercover CEO's Accidental Wife

At my family's charity gala, I was on stage presenting the drone that would secure my legacy.

Suddenly, the power cut. My own brother and cousin had sabotaged the presentation, causing the drone to crash.

As a cruel joke, a bizarre auction rule was invoked, pairing me with the maintenance worker injured in the chaos. My fiancé, Kurtis, didn't defend me. Instead, he publicly insisted that "rules are rules," abandoning me to the crowd's laughter.

Humiliated and utterly alone, I was tied to a man they called a "glorified janitor" while my family did nothing.

So I did the one thing they never saw coming. I walked up to the maintenance worker and proposed right there on stage.

I thought it was just an act of spite.

I had no idea my new husband was actually a powerful undercover CEO, and that our marriage would be the first step in my family's complete and utter ruin.

Chapter 1

Bailey POV

My brother, Holt, deliberately tripped the circuit breaker, and in that moment, my entire life shattered into a million pieces.

I stood on the charity gala stage, the spotlight hot on my face, ready to present the new energy-efficient drone prototype for Robinson Dynamics. My family' s company. My legacy, or so I thought.

A sudden, sharp pop echoed through the grand ballroom. The lights flickered, then died, plunging half the stage into darkness. The drone, suspended mid-air, sputtered and began a slow, controlled descent, right towards the main attraction: a giant, intricately sculpted ice statue of a soaring eagle.

Panic flared in my chest. I knew the protocol. An emergency manual override. I reached for the console.

But before my fingers could hit the emergency button, a figure emerged from the shadows. He moved with a surprising speed, a wrench clutched in his hand, a greasy stain on his maintenance uniform. He lunged, not at the console, but at the descending drone itself.

A gasp rippled through the crowd. He was going to try and catch it.

He miscalculated. Or maybe, the drone was heavier than he expected. It struck him square in the chest, sending both him and the ice eagle crashing to the ground in a cacophony of shattering ice and groaning metal.

The emergency lights flickered on, bathing the scene in an eerie, red glow. The drone was mangled, the eagle was pulverized, and the maintenance worker was sprawled amidst the glittering shards, groaning.

My eyes swept over the shocked faces in the crowd. My parents, Coleman and Alyce, looked mortified. My fiancé, Kurtis Meyers, stood stiffly, a frown creasing his handsome face. And Chandra, my cousin, watched with a smirk playing on her lips, feigning concern.

"My apologies, ladies and gentlemen!" Holt' s voice boomed, amplified by a microphone he' d miraculously acquired. He rushed onto the stage, a picture of strained composure. "A minor technical glitch, entirely unforeseen! But our brave Dangelo here, bless his heart, tried to prevent further damage."

He didn' t