Chapter 2

I froze for a second. Forget the documents, my jewelry and bags were gone too. Where was I supposed to find a deed?

Paige looked at me like she'd already won, grinning so hard her face twisted. She dug through her bag and flung a certificate at my face. "Take a good look. My name's on this deed! You're nothing but a mistress!"

Rhonda cackled even harder, shoving her phone practically against my nose, wanting every angle of my humiliation caught on camera. The livestream's viewer count spiked, and comments came flooding in.

[I live for moments like this. Watching a mistress get exposed is so satisfying.]

[The deed is literally in the real owner's name and she still has the nerve to call herself legitimate!]

[She's an embarrassment across the whole country. What kind of parents raise someone this shameless?]

But in a moment nobody else noticed, one stunned comment flew by. [Wait, doesn't she look exactly like the daughter of Morlene City's richest man?]

I paid it no mind. I just stared at the name on the deed. How dare Bradley do this, spending my family's money to buy another woman a house.

He'd always been hopelessly unromantic and had never once given me a gift. This house was the one thing I'd spent half a year picking out before I finally asked him for it.

I'd planned to move in the moment I got back from my travels around the world. Instead, I'd been hit with a nasty surprise instead. If they weren't going to leave, then I'd just call the police and see who ended up behind bars.

But the next second, a figure rushed through the doorway and grabbed me. "Victoria! Stop this right now!"

The force sent me stumbling backward until I hit the wall. Terrified, I immediately covered my stomach with both hands.

The whole reason I'd come home early was that I'd just found out I was pregnant. If anything happened to this baby, I'd make every one of them pay.

I looked up furiously, and it was my mother-in-law, Suzanne Ford. For a second I froze, so relieved I nearly cried.

Then, the next second, she snatched the phone from my hand and smashed it on the floor. "What are you screaming about!"

My expression froze. My voice shook despite myself. I couldn't believe the woman who'd always spoken to me so gently could treat me this way.

"Mom, what are you talking about? Bradley cheated on me. This is his mistress!"

The words were barely out of my mouth before Suzanne snapped, "Shut up! A whole year married and still no baby, and you have the nerve to call me Mom? All you do is gallivant around the world spending my son's money!

"If you had any decency, you'd just behave. Paige is a good girl. She's easy to please."

She rattled it off without a single pause, clearly something she'd been sitting on for a long time. But we'd only been married a year, and I'd spent the first six months on birth control. Even my own parents hadn't pushed me about it. What right did she have to lecture me?

And to think I'd felt sorry for her, imagining how hard her life had been in the countryside, and bought her supplements and jewelry out of pity. I must have been out of my mind.

Paige threw herself into Suzanne's arms, putting on a wounded voice. "Mom, that scared me so bad. Even the baby in my belly got scared."

My mind went blank with shock. My eyes shot to her stomach. "You're pregnant?"

Paige puffed her stomach out proudly. "Almost three months. Guess that beats you, you barren old hen."

My vision went dark. I nearly collapsed.

Three months ago to the day had been my birthday. Bradley had taken me to Aspen, and we'd gone skiing together.

Exhausted, we'd dropped into the snow together, and he'd pulled me into his arms. "Tori, I'll love you forever."

I'd shouted back happily, "I'll love you forever too, you goof."