I was devoted to Tom Collin, a man whose ambition I once admired. I gave up my career, my future, my entire identity for him. I was the perfect wife while he built his empire. But when he reached the top, I became invisible.
Then I found him with her—his college ex, the woman who’d abandoned him when he had nothing. When I confronted him, the man I married vanished, replaced by a monster whose hands left bruises on my skin.
I was finally ready to leave. But I never got the chance. He left our five-year-old daughter, Joy, alone for his mistress. And in his absence, my baby was murdered.
I buried my child, and with her, the weak woman I used to be. In a haze of grief, I let a handsome stranger hold me for one night in Italy—a single moment of oblivion.
Five years later, I live for one purpose: Revenge. Tom Collin will pay for what he did. He has no idea the woman now standing before him. But my new boss… he might. The magnetic CEO of our rival company is the stranger from that night. And he doesn’t know he’s the father of my secret daughter.


I stared at my phone screen, reading the same email for what felt like countless times. The words remained unchanged no matter how desperately I wished they would transform into something different, something bearable.


Not now. Not when I had finally built a life here that made sense.


My fingers trembled as I scrolled through the message again, searching for some loophole, some misunderstanding I might have missed. But the corporate language was crystal clear in its cold efficiency. They wanted me back in America. Not requested. Demanded.


The phone felt like it weighed a thousand pounds in my hands.


Elsie's gentle voice cut through my panic. I looked up to find her watching me with those perceptive brown eyes that missed nothing. Her fork hovered over her plate, concern written across her small features.


Chapter 84 - Chapter 84 Corporate Ultimatum