CHAPTER 1 — The Night He Tried to Break Me
The Blackthorn Manor ballroom was silent after the final strike.
Two hundred.
That was the number Nathan Ashford wanted.
The number he believed would erase my pride.
The number he believed would make me remember my "place."
But as I knelt on the cold marble floor, surrounded by the man I married and the woman who stole him from me, I realized something.
Nathan didn't know me at all.
He thought I was weak because I stayed quiet.
He thought I was powerless because I never showed my family's influence.
He thought my silence meant surrender.
He was wrong.
When I whispered, "Father... it's time," his confident expression finally cracked.
Outside the mansion, helicopters approached.
Celeste lowered her champagne glass.
"What is happening?" she asked.
Nathan looked toward the windows.
For the first time that night...
He looked afraid.
Because he didn't know who was coming.
But I did.
My father.
The man Nathan had spent four years insulting.
The man he believed was nothing more than an old retired accountant.
The man who had secretly built one of the most powerful private security and investment networks in the world.
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And now...
He was coming for his daughter.
