Chapter 1

For ten years, I stood beside Grant Hale while he built an empire from nothing.

He had never once stayed out all night. Then, on my birthday, he called me with guilt thick in his voice.

"Claire, there is an emergency at the Paris office. I have to handle it myself. I should have planned better, but I don't think I can make it home for your birthday this year. I'm sorry."

The moment we hung up, I booked the next flight to Paris. I thought I would surprise my husband.

Instead, I walked in on something I would remember for the rest of my life.

Grant had a woman pinned beneath him. Desire darkened his eyes, and his voice came out low and rough.

"Vanessa, what will it take for you to keep this baby?"

"We can't do this, Grant. It isn't fair to Claire..."

My heart stopped.

The woman in his bed was Vanessa Reed, my best friend. The woman I had loved like a sister.

My hands went numb. Every drop of blood in my body seemed to turn to ice. I dug my nails into my palms until the pain pulled me back from the edge.

My husband and my best friend had certainly gone to a lot of trouble for my birthday present.

They had betrayed me behind my back for long enough to make a child together.

Ten years of marriage. Fifteen years of friendship. Somehow, I had become the third wheel.

Fine.

I would remove myself.

I kicked the bedroom door open.

The crash made them both jerk upright. Clothes and sheets lay tangled across the room. I stared at their half-naked bodies without screaming, cursing, or asking why.

"So this is the emergency?" I asked. "Getting my best friend pregnant does sound urgent."

Vanessa did not even finish dressing before she stumbled toward me. She dropped to her knees at my feet, sobbing.

"Claire, please let me explain. This is all a misunderstanding. We drank too much after a client dinner, and then..."

She choked on her words.

"It was my fault. If this hurts you, I'll terminate the pregnancy. I'll make the appointment today."

What was I supposed to say to that? My best friend was carrying my husband's baby. The two people closest to me had betrayed me together. Was I supposed to thank them for feeling bad about it?

After Vanessa's divorce, I had worried about her. I was the one who found her a position at Hale Holdings. At the time, she had linked her arm through mine and laughed.

"Don't worry, Claire. I'll keep an eye on Grant for you. No woman is getting near him on my watch."

Now she was the woman who had come between us.

It was the middle of summer, but I had never felt so cold.

I raised my hand and slapped her with every ounce of strength I had. The crack rang through the room, and a red mark bloomed across her perfect cheek.

Vanessa stared at me, stunned, as if she could not believe I had actually hit her.

I fought to keep my voice steady. "Your clothes didn't fall off by themselves."

Grant rushed forward and put himself between us. Concern flashed in his eyes when he looked at Vanessa. Then he turned to me, took my hand, and spoke with the same tenderness he had used for years.

"Did that hurt your hand? You know it kills me to see you upset. These hands are too delicate to hit anyone."

I looked at the man who had slept beside me for a decade and did not recognize him.

He lifted my hand as though nothing had happened, as though he were still the husband who treasured me above everything else. His warm breath brushed my stinging palm.

Nausea rose in my throat.

I yanked my hand away. "I want a divorce, Grant."

He froze, then recovered almost immediately. His tone turned indulgent, like he was calming a child in the middle of a tantrum.

"Don't say things you don't mean. You are my wife, Claire. That won't change because of Vanessa."

He glanced meaningfully at my stomach.

"But an empire this size needs an heir."

My whole body began to shake.

"You know why I can't have children."

During the ugliest year of Grant's fight for control of the company, a former partner facing federal fraud charges had hired men to abduct me for leverage. They locked me in a tank of freezing water for an entire day and night. I survived with severe claustrophobia and internal injuries that doctors said would probably leave me infertile.

Silence swallowed the room. Guilt flickered over Grant's face.

I turned to Vanessa, whose eyes were swollen from crying.

"Have you forgotten who helped you get away from the man who controlled your money and bruised your arms? Who paid your tuition and gave you a place to live when you had nowhere else to go?"

"Please, Claire, stop." Vanessa cut me off with another sob. "It was all my fault. I betrayed you. I don't deserve to live."

She suddenly lunged toward the balcony.

"If this is the only way you'll forgive me, then I'll do it."

Grant panicked. He grabbed her and pulled her back, then rounded on me, fury burning in his eyes.

"Enough, Claire. Are you really going to drive a pregnant woman to her death?"

His voice rose.

"You can't give me a child. Does that mean I have to die without ever having one of my own?"