Chapter 1

After dropping my father off at the golf course, I drove to Victoria's office.

There was a body slumped beside the trash can outside.

He wasn't moving. A torn fishing net had been thrown over his face, but I recognized the build immediately. It was my father-in-law.

I rushed into the lobby looking for Victoria.

It was the company's IPO day. Victoria was decked out in an evening gown, two sapphires glinting from her ears.

I walked up and grabbed her arm. The second she saw it was me, she yanked away in disgust.

"What now? Can't you see I'm busy?"

"Victoria, Jason just beat dad up. You need to—"

"Enough, Ethan. I know you're pissed that your broke-ass father got handled, but honestly? Jason did the right thing."

"Excuse me?"

"Your dad never knew his place to begin with. But picking today—the day of my IPO—to come stir up trouble? Seriously?"

"If Jason hadn't caught him and thrown him out in time, I'd have been a laughingstock in front of everyone!"

"Victoria, how can you talk about him like that?"

"Am I wrong? He may be my father-in-law, but I don't owe him a damn thing!"

"That's not my father out there. It's your father. He's badly hurt—we need to get him to a hospital now."

"Victoria, just look at this photo!"

I held up my phone. She slapped it out of my hand and burst into shrill laughter.

"Ethan, what the hell is wrong with you? My dad's suits are all custom-made on Savile Row. He wouldn't be caught dead in trash like that."

"That's your mutt of a father out there, no doubt about it. If you'd listened to me and bought him some decent clothes, maybe none of this would've happened."

My father may have been one of the richest men in the country, but he'd never cared about appearances. He raised me the same way—what's on the outside is just packaging, what counts is what's underneath.

I'd taken that to heart and kept a low profile. Two years of marriage, and Victoria still had no idea who my family was. Not that I'd ever let her go without.

I just hadn't realized that the second things got hard, her true colors would come out. She'd looked down on my father and me for years over the way we dressed—I'd thought it was just disrespect. Now I knew it was something uglier.

One thing was crystal clear: Victoria was a gold-digging snob, and she'd let success completely warp her.

A woman like that didn't deserve my love. Today, I was ending this.

"Enough. I'm busy. I don't want to talk to you."

Victoria turned to walk away.

"Victoria! Wait!"

I reached out to stop her, but a man in a white sequined suit stepped in front of me.

It was Jason Brooks, her company's hottest rising influencer.