Chapter 1

1: 1

The day I found out I was pregnant, I found a delivery bag of birth-control pills at my own front door.

There was a pair of strange red stilettos sitting in the entryway too.

I frowned and reached for my phone to call the police.

That was when a cup of hot coffee hit me full in the face.

"You really are poor and light-fingered! Are your eyes on your ass? You've got the nerve to steal from my house!"

A young woman wrapped in a bath towel, wearing my custom cashmere house slippers.

She snatched the keys to my Rolls-Royce right out of my hand.

Then she pointed at me and screamed, insufferably smug.

"My husband runs Dragonet Law Firm. You just wait for your lawsuit!"

I wiped the sticky mess off my face and laughed coldly inside.

What a coincidence.

Dragonet Law Firm has exactly two people at its head.

One of them is my son.

The other is my husband.

...

I called my son straight away.

"Come to the Cloudmere Estate right now!"

Brandon's voice on the other end was thick with impatience.

"Mom, if you've got nothing better to do, go wander the farmers' market. I'm swamped at the office, I don't have time for your nonsense!"

My fingers went white around the phone.

I thought of the test report tucked away in my bag, the one that said my son had acute leukemia.

I had finally carried this pregnancy, at my age, and now there would be cord blood.

Soon I could take him to the hospital for the stem cell transplant.

I couldn't let him get upset.

I drew in a deep breath, swallowed the anger rising in my throat, and softened my voice.

"Mom really does have something..."

Before I could finish.

The line clicked over into a busy tone.

He'd hung up.

I stood there stunned for a moment.

Linda Simmons, still in the bath towel, was holding the limited-edition bone china cup I'd brought back from overseas.

Arms crossed, her whole face full of contempt and swagger.

"Old and shameless, both. Caught red-handed as a thief and still got the gall to call for backup."

"Does your son know his mother's a filthy little sneak-thief?"

Fury churned in me, but I couldn't be bothered to argue with her anymore.

I decided to just go inside and get the purchase papers.

Linda stepped forward and threw her arm across the doorframe, blocking me.

Spit flew from her mouth as she screeched into my face.

"Somebody help! This old woman's picking on me, a young girl home alone. She stole from us and now she's trying to break in and rob the place!"

Her voice was sharp and shrill, and the neighbors started crowding in.

I nearly laughed from sheer anger.

"You're the one who grabbed my car keys out of my hand, and now I'm the thief?"

Linda rolled her eyes at me, her face twisted with disgust.

She waved the keys in front of everyone, her blood-red nail jabbing at my face.

"Lady, have some shame! There's my husband's firm logo right there on the key fob!"

I started to explain: "My husband gave those to me!"

Half a sentence out, and Linda cut me off.

She deliberately raised her voice, twisting every word toward something ugly.

"Oh please, a wrinkled old woman, still shameless enough to come to our neighborhood hunting rich old men!"

"Which soft-hearted old man got his hands on that saggy body of yours and bought you a luxury car?"

That set the crowd off instantly.

I'd only come to this house once since buying it, and none of the neighbors recognized me.

They took her side from the start, pulling Linda behind them and glaring at me sideways.

"Stealing, sneaking around, chasing after men. At her age, and no shame at all!"

"If you ask me, this old bag's just too old to seduce men anymore, so now she's reduced to breaking in and stealing!"

Someone even raised a phone and kept filming right in my face.

"Post it online and expose her! Let everyone see this old lowlife!"

The filth kept coming, one line after another, and my anger blazed.

"Watch your mouths! I'm not a thief. I'm coming home to my own house!"

Linda burst out laughing on the spot.

She threw a spiteful glance at the sportswear I had on.

"Your house?"

"You haven't even looked at yourself in a puddle of your own piss, and you think you deserve to live here?"

"The Cloudmere Estate is top-tier luxury!"

"A dried-up old woman like you could drop her pants and sell herself till the day she died and still not afford a single toilet in this place!"

For the life of me, I couldn't understand it.

How had my son ended up with a girlfriend who spewed filth like this.

I was ready to explode.

My instinct was to call the police right then.

But then I pictured Brandon's face, more haggard by the day.

I couldn't bear to make him drag his sick body down to the station to sort out a fight between his own mother and his girlfriend.

I forced the urge back down.

I swept a cold look over Linda.

"Young lady, you haven't actually married into the Gilbert family yet. Take my advice and leave yourself some room. You'll regret it otherwise."

With that, I walked straight to the black bronze door.

I pressed my thumb to the fingerprint reader.

And with everyone watching, I said in a low, steady voice.

"Take a good look. Is this my house or not!"