Fake Wife, Real Revenge: I Married His Billionaire Uncle

"Your marriage certificate is a forgery, Miss Buchanan."

Alanna Buchanan gripped the counter. "Then who is Aiden legally married to?"

"Ember Rowland."

Her blood froze. "Who?"

"Ember Rowland," the clerk repeated.

"No." Alanna's voice came out hollow. "That's his aunt. His dead uncle's widow."

For two years, Alanna had believed she was Aiden's wife.

But her husband had never been hers. He had married his widowed aunt instead.

Two hours earlier...

Alanna typed the final line of code, and a quiet smile touched her lips. The algorithm was perfect. Clean, efficient, and years ahead of anything their competitors could dream of. She leaned back in her chair, the satisfaction a warm hum beneath her skin. This-this was what she loved. The logic, the creation, the building of something from nothing.

Her eyes drifted to the digital calendar on her desk. The day after tomorrow was circled in red: her second wedding anniversary with Aiden Mcmahon. Seven years together, two years married. She had already booked a table at the small Italian restaurant where they'd had their first date.

Her phone lit up on the desk. A message from Aiden. "Going to be late tonight, honey. Have to lock down this new round of financing with Sterling."

Alanna's smile softened. As the CEO of Aura Tech, Aiden was the face of the company, the dealmaker. She, as the chief architect of their technology, was the engine. They were a perfect team. "It's okay," she typed back. "Take care of yourself. And don't forget the day after tomorrow." She pictured his handsome face, the way his eyes crinkled when he smiled, and a familiar warmth spread through her chest.

She packed her things, grabbing her handbag. There was one more stop she needed to make. A little surprise for their anniversary dinner.

Walking out, she passed Aiden's corner office. The door was closed, the glass frosted. She imagined him inside, fighting for their future, and felt a surge of pride. Their future.

She drove away from the gleaming Aura Tech tower, the Las Vegas lights beginning to blur into a glittering tapestry. Her destination wasn't a jewelry store or a high-end boutique. It was the Clark County Clerk's Office.

The air inside smelled of old paper and stale coffee. People waited in line, their faces a mixture of excitement and numb bureaucracy. Alanna felt a small, secret thrill. For a small acquisition Aura Tech was planning, they needed a government background check, which required a certified copy of her marriage license. It felt fitting-using the official proof of their love to build their empire.

"Next."

Alanna stepped up to the counter, offering a polite smile to the older clerk, whose name tag read 'Peterson'.

She handed over her driver's license. "I need a certified copy of a marriage license. The names are Alanna Buchanan and Aiden Mcmahon." She gave him the date of their wedding.

Mr. Peterson typed the information into his computer, his brow slowly furrowing. He adjusted his reading glasses, reread the screen, then glanced back at her license.

"Miss Buchanan," he began, his voice hesitant. "Are you sure about that date?"

A small knot of unease formed in her stomach, but she kept the smile in place. "Of course. June 12th, two years ago. I wouldn't forget my own wedding."

Mr. Peterson's expression shifted to something strange, a look of pity. He turned his monitor toward her. "There's no record in the system of a marriage between you and an Aiden Mcmahon."

The smile froze on her face. "That's impossible. It must be a system error. We have the certificate at home."

"Miss Buchanan," the clerk said gently, his pitying eyes fixed on her face, "there is no legal record of a marriage between you and Aiden Mcmahon. The certificate you have is not valid. If it was presented to you as an official marriage certificate, then it was forged."

Alanna gripped the edge of the counter. The word forged seemed to split the world beneath her feet. "Then... has Aiden ever registered a legal marriage?"

The clerk sighed wearily and typed something else. His fingers moved slowly, then stopped. His expression grew even more complicated. "Yes. Mr. Aiden Mcmahon does have a legal marriage on file."

Her throat tightened. "Then who is Aiden legally married to?"

"Ember Rowland."

Her blood froze. "Who?"

"Ember Rowland," Peterson repeated.

"No." Alanna's voice came out hollow. "That's his aunt. His dead uncle's widow."

Aiden's fragile, widowed aunt? The woman his late uncle had left behind? The one who needed so much "looking after"? Alanna's mind went completely blank. The sounds of the office faded into a dull roar.

Peterson's voice seemed to come from a great distance. "Their date of registration was one month before your... 'wedding' date."

The blood in Alanna's veins turned to ice. She gripped the counter to keep from falling. His pitying eyes were like daggers, shredding the beautiful tapestry of her seven-year love story. The platinum bracelet on her wrist, Aiden's "engagement gift," dug painfully into her skin.

She heard a voice, a strange, trembling thing that she barely recognized as her own. "...a copy. Can I have a copy of Aiden Mcmahon and Ember Rowland's marriage certificate?"

Mr. Peterson nodded, and the printer began to whir. The sound was a mocking laugh track to the last seven years of her life.

A single sheet of paper slid out.

She took it. Her fingertips were numb. The paper was light, but it carried the weight of a lie that was heavy enough to crush her entire world.

Alanna sat in the driver's seat of her car, unmoving. The sky outside the parking garage bled from dusky orange to deep indigo. She hadn't noticed.

Her hand was clamped around the marriage certificate. The edges of the paper were soft and damp from the cold sweat on her palm. Her breath came in short, sharp gasps, her heart hammering against her ribs like a trapped bird. She tried to start the car, but her hand was shaking too violently to fit the key into the ignition.

She closed her eyes, forcing herself to take a deep, ragged breath. No tears came. Just a coldness that sank deep into her bones.

Her brain, unbidden, began to play back the last seven years, not as a romance, but as a horror film.

Five years ago, when Aura Tech was just a concept in her apartment, she'd worked day and night, fueled by coffee and passion, writing the core code. Aiden handled the "networking." "You're my secret weapon, honey," he'd said. A secret, yes. A tool, hidden away.

Three years ago, when they landed their first round of angel investment, he'd introduced her at the celebration dinner as, "My fiancée, the inspiration for all of this." He never once mentioned the thousands of lines of code she had written, the architecture she had built from scratch.

Their "wedding." A lavish ceremony in Napa Valley, surrounded by friends and family. It was all a stage play. And she was the only actor who didn't know her lines were a lie.

A detail, once ignored, now screamed in her memory. Before the wedding, Aiden had her sign a prenuptial agreement. "It's just a formality for a family like mine," he'd said, smiling that charming smile. "To protect our shared assets." She had signed it without a second thought, believing it was a sign of trust.

Her eyes snapped open. The agreement. It stipulated that in the event of a divorce, her personal assets-including the substantial trust fund inherited from her mother-would be considered "joint marital investments." Aiden would be entitled to half.

But their marriage was never valid. The prenup wasn't an agreement. It was a contract for theft.

Ember Rowland. The woman who always wore white, who looked as if a strong breeze could knock her over. After Aiden's uncle died, Aiden had convinced Alanna to let Ember live in a nearby condo, so he could "take care of her." Ember would look at Aiden with wide, adoring eyes. "You're so brilliant, Aiden. Not like my useless late husband." And Aiden had soaked it up.

Alanna had caught him buying Ember expensive jewelry. "She's had such a hard time," he'd explained. "I just want to see her smile."

That money had come from Alanna's personal accounts. Aiden had claimed the company needed cash flow, and she had transferred it without question.

She had been a fool. A walking ATM with a heart.

The grief, the shock-it all burned away. In its place, an inferno of rage erupted, leaving behind nothing but cold, hard hatred.

The shaking stopped. Her eyes, when she looked in the rearview mirror, were sharp and brittle.

She pulled out her phone. The contact name "My Love" was a bitter joke. She scrolled down and found a different number belonging to Sophie Hayes, her most trusted assistant and the one person at Aura Tech she could rely on without question. She dialed.

A crisp, efficient voice answered immediately. "Alanna? Are you okay? It's late..."

"Sophie," Alanna cut her off, her own voice chillingly calm. "I need you to do a few things for me. Right now."

She finally started the car, the engine roaring to life like a declaration of war.

"First," she said, pulling out of the parking garage, "pull all company financial records for the past five years. I want every major expenditure Aiden approved flagged, especially any funds with unclear destinations."

"Second, notify legal. I want them to prepare a detailed file proving my founding equity, my status as the sole technical founder, and the holder of the original patents for Aura Tech."

"Third, find out where Aiden Mcmahon and Ember Rowland are. Right now."

There was no hesitation on the other end. Just one word. "Done."

Alanna hung up, placing the fraudulent marriage certificate carefully in a protected sleeve in her handbag. It wasn't just a piece of paper anymore. It was evidence.

Her phone vibrated. A message from Sophie. It was a single photo: Aiden's car, a silver Porsche, parked outside a secluded mountain retreat.

Alanna killed the headlights and pulled her car onto a dirt path shielded by a thicket of pine trees, a safe distance from the retreat's main entrance. The lights from the luxury cabins glowed like warm, welcoming embers in the deep darkness of the mountain. The sight made her stomach churn.

She didn't get out of the car. She wasn't here for a screaming match, to play the part of the hysterical, wronged woman. She was here to hunt.

From her handbag, she took out a small device that looked like a USB drive. It was a long-range audio bug she had designed herself, with a fifty-meter range. She slipped out of her heels and into a pair of flat sneakers, pulling on a dark jacket. She moved through the trees like a ghost, silent and purposeful.

The air was cold, smelling of pine needles and damp earth. Her senses felt sharper than ever before.

She circled around to the back of the cabin where Aiden's car was parked. A window had been left slightly ajar, spilling a sliver of warm light and muffled voices into the night. Crouching low in the shrubbery beneath the window, she carefully affixed the listening device to the corner of the glass pane.

She put in a single wireless earbud. Their voices came through, sharp and clear.

It was Ember, her voice a cloying whine. "Aiden, when are you going to get rid of that woman? I'm your legal wife. I'm sick of sneaking around like this."

Aiden's soothing tone followed. "Soon, baby. As soon as Sterling's investment comes through, I'll move on to the next phase."

"What phase?" Ember pressed.

Alanna held her breath, her heart a cold, heavy stone in her chest. This was it.

Aiden chuckled, his voice dripping with smug self-satisfaction. "The prenup was designed for this. The marriage clauses were camouflage. The attached investment agreements classify every dollar from her trust as an irrevocable capital contribution to Aura Tech and transfer the voting rights attached to that money to me. Those agreements stand even if the marriage doesn't. Once Sterling's investment comes through, I'll dilute her shares and force her out. Her money stays. She goes."

"But she's the core of Aura Tech," Ember said, a note of concern in her voice. "Without her..."

"Tech people are a dime a dozen. We can hire more," Aiden cut her off dismissively. "But there's only one CEO of Aura Tech. Me. Once I have full control and merge it into the Mcmahon Group, my position in the family is secure."

Alanna let out a silent, humorless laugh in the darkness. Her nails dug into her palms. So he wasn't just greedy. He was a fool.

Ember's voice, now laced with avarice, piped up again. "What about her house? That beach house in Malibu. I like that one."

"It will all be yours, baby," Aiden promised. "Everything she has will be ours."

The sound of a kiss, wet and obscene, followed.

Fabric rustled through the earbud, followed by the scrape of a chair across the floor. Ember released a breathy moan. "Right there, Aiden..."

"Quiet, baby. You don't want the whole mountain knowing what a greedy little wife I have." Aiden's low laugh was followed by another muffled moan as his hand clearly wandered beneath her clothes. "Then again, maybe Alanna should hear this. Consider it an anniversary gift."

Ember giggled, shameless and breathless. "Only if you tell her we did it in the cabin she paid for."

"I'll tell her we fucked in every house she's about to lose."

Alanna's face was a mask of stone. She ended the recording, saving the file. She had what she needed.

She didn't wait for more. She turned and began to retrace her steps, just as quietly as she had come.

As she was about to clear the bushes, the cabin door creaked open.

Aiden stepped out onto the deck, lighting a cigarette. His gaze swept casually over the dark yard, right in the direction of her hiding spot.

Alanna's heart stopped. She froze, every muscle tensed, trying to melt into the shadows.

He didn't see her. He took a long drag from the cigarette, leaning against the railing. As he exhaled a cloud of smoke, obscuring his view for a precious second, Alanna ducked low and scurried back into the deeper darkness of the woods.

Back in her car, she leaned her head against the seat, only then realizing her back was soaked in cold sweat. But there was no fear. Only the electric thrill of the hunt. The game was on.

She encrypted the audio file and sent it to Sophie. "Get our new legal team to analyze this and the prenup," she typed. "I want to know exactly how we can put them in prison for fraud."