Chapter 1

Gregory Stanton disconnected the call. Before I could even draw a breath, he lunged. Two sharp, stinging slaps across my face sent my vision spiraling into darkness as blood dripped steadily from my nose.

He spat at me, his eyes burning with pure hatred. "Like father, like son! I can't believe you two teamed up to steal my wife and my daughter-in-law!"

Dad shoved him aside and stepped in front of me. He glared at Gregory and shouted, "We aren't homewreckers! Selena and I have been together for 40 years, and Emily is legally married to my son!

"Neither of them would ever cheat. You must be mistaken."

Gregory smiled dismissively. "Go ahead and ask around the hospital. Everyone here knows I'm Selena's husband and Emily's father-in-law."

As if on cue, the gathered crowd began to chime in.

"He really is Ms. Ashford's husband!"

"Ms. Ashford and her husband are very close. Whenever they come in for checkups, their daughter-in-law, Ms. Emily Carter, clears the entire floor and arranges special consultations. Mr. Ashford is always there too. The four of them get along so well—there's no way they could be mistaken."

"We've seen Ms. Ashford's son before. This man is definitely not him!"

Gregory's face twisted with rage. "Did you hear that? Are you suggesting all these people are slandering you? I caught you both in the act, yet you still have the nerve to make excuses!

"Lucky for me, my daughter-in-law runs this hospital. Otherwise, you'd probably try to turn this around on me."

I was the one who owned this hospital. After Dad's injury, I had handed the keys to Emily, trusting her to manage it so I could focus on his recovery.

Looking around now, I realized the staff had been completely purged. Every face I recognized was gone; none of the current employees recognized me.

Gregory took our stunned silence as guilt and grew even more brazen. "If I'd known parasites like you would show up, I would have gone public with Selena from the start."

Unaware of the truth, the patients and their families looked at us with disdain.

"These two actually carry themselves pretty well. Hard to believe they'd both go after another man's wife."

"You can't judge a book by its cover. They look perfectly respectable, but who knows what they get up to behind closed doors."

"Getting close to Ms. Ashford… you know what that means."

The man drew out his words suggestively, his eyes repeatedly scanning Dad and me from the waist down. The others caught on immediately and burst into laughter.

Dad had always been a man of integrity, treating everyone with respect throughout his career. He and Mom had spent 40 years together in perfect harmony, yet he remained a shadow to the world. Due to the high-level confidentiality of his work, the public knew Selena Asford—Oakridge's wealthiest woman—was married, but her husband's identity and appearance remained a total mystery.

Hearing those filthy words, Dad went ashen, his body trembling with suppressed rage. I saw him wince as the wound on his lower body began to throb. I bit the tip of my tongue, using the physical sting to anchor myself.

It suddenly hit me that we had come to the hospital today to register Dad as a patient. I turned to him immediately. "Dad, your marriage certificate with Mom can prove that you're legally married!"

Dad snapped out of it and nodded quickly. "Right, right. I have my marriage certificate with Selena!"

With trembling fingers, he reached into his folder and pulled out the folded document. I held my breath, waiting for the truth to silence the room.

But before Dad could unfold it, Gregory snatched it from his hand. His face, which had been tight ever since I mentioned the marriage certificate, shifted the instant he unfolded it. A sharp, jagged laugh escaped him, building into a manic roar that left him gasping for air.

Dad and I exchanged a look of pure, cold dread as a sinking feeling hit us both at once.