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.


The words tumbled from my mouth before I could stop them. "I have no idea what you mean." Even as I spoke, the lie tasted bitter on my tongue. My pulse hammered against my ribs, and I felt like the restaurant walls were shrinking around me. Every instinct screamed that this conversation would shatter the fragile peace I'd built around my life.


Gerald's expression remained unchanged, those dark eyes studying me with unsettling intensity. He wasn't fooled for a second.


"Just say whatever you came here to say," I rushed on, desperate to fill the silence before it crushed me completely.


"Fine." He shifted forward slightly, and I caught the subtle tension in his shoulders. "I'll cut right to it." A pause stretched between us, loaded with unspoken truths. "Elsie is my daughter."


Chapter 149 - Chapter 149 World Tilts Sideways