The ambulance arrived in time. The baby survived.

I spent three days in the hospital. It wasn't until the day I was discharged that I received a call from Piers.

"You've had your little tantrum long enough, haven't you? There's a reception tonight. You're coming with me."

So that was it. Three days of complete silence, and he'd assumed I was sulking. That the cold shoulder was deliberate punishment for my so-called rebellion.

I wanted to refuse, but the hostess, Mrs. Xu, had been one of my mother's closest friends. I couldn't not go.

At the reception, Piers played his usual role to perfection, intercepting every glass of wine offered my way. The women around us practically swooned.

"Mr. Stephens is so attentive. He never lets his wife touch a single drop."

"Remember that fool who tried to pressure Mrs. Stephens into drinking? He flipped on the spot. Who would've guessed that a man with such impeccable composure would put someone in the hospital over it?"

"That's what they say. Love your wife and the fortune follows. Just look at how far Stephens Corp has come!"

I smiled through all of it, but the smile never reached my eyes.

The devotion they envied was nothing more than a carefully constructed illusion. Only I knew what filthy betrayal and calculation lurked behind it.

The words had barely settled when Julie glided over on the arm of a date.

"Hey, sis. Hey, brother-in-law." She leaned into her companion's shoulder with practiced intimacy. "Let me introduce you. This is my boyfriend."

Piers's smile froze. A sharp crack split the air as the champagne flute shattered in his bare hand.

He seized Julie by the arm and wrenched her away from the man. "Come with me."

"Piers, what are you doing?!"

He said nothing. His face was ashen as he dragged her away, leaving the entire room buzzing.

I had no interest in cleaning up their mess. I slipped out during the commotion.

The evening breeze on the terrace swept away the noise of the banquet hall, but it carried something else: voices, sharp and furious, from just around the corner.

"Weren't you the one who wanted to draw the line? So why do you care what I do?!"

Piers's voice was glacial. "You're carrying my child, and you have the nerve to parade around with another man?"

"So what? My boyfriend doesn't mind. He'll raise this baby as his own!"

"Over my dead body." Piers turned to go after the man, but stopped short when he spotted me standing in the shadows.

Something shifted behind his eyes. He glanced at Julie, then closed the distance between us in one stride and crushed his mouth against mine.

The kiss was brutal and cold. Revulsion rippled through me like an electric shock.

I fought to pull away, but his arm locked around my waist like a vise.

Humiliation crashed over me in waves. He was using me. Using me as a prop to provoke Julie.

Right on cue, a choked sob rose behind him. Emboldened, Piers pressed harder, yanking down my dress strap and shoving his hand beneath the fabric.

"Let go of me!" I snarled, but he only tightened his grip.

Then came the sound of approaching chaos.

Julie had brought an audience. A crowd of guests surged toward the terrace, her trembling voice leading the charge. "I saw a man drag my sister out here! Someone please help her!"

Piers froze. He fumbled to pull my gown back into place and stepped in front of me.

"Get out!"

The guests recognized him, and nervous laughter rippled through the group.

"Oh, it's just Mr. Stephens!"

"The lovebirds were having a moment. Ms. Harding, you had us worried over nothing!"

Julie's tears streamed freely. "I'm so sorry, sis. I was just worried about you..."

Piers saw right through her jealousy, and he couldn't hide his satisfaction. "That's enough. Don't cause a scene next time."

Before he could finish, Julie's eyes rolled back and she collapsed.

"Julie!" His pupils contracted. The cold indifference he'd worn while using me vanished in an instant, replaced by raw panic and desperate tenderness.

He didn't hesitate for a single second. He dropped me, scooped Julie into his arms, and charged out of the banquet hall. "Call an ambulance!"

The moment he let go, my gown slipped free and pooled around me. Bare skin flashed under the chandelier light.

I grabbed for the fabric, but it was already too late.

Camera flashes erupted like a hailstorm, so blinding I couldn't keep my eyes open.

"Stop! Don't!" I shielded myself uselessly. "Stop taking pictures!"

No one listened. I clutched the gown to my body, fingernails digging through the fabric and into my palms.

Through the relentless storm of shutter clicks, I stared in the direction Piers had disappeared, and the hatred inside me grew like thorned vines wrapping around every rib.

Piers Stephens. Everything you did to me tonight, I will repay tenfold in three days.

The whispers and camera shutters wove together into a suffocating net, tightening around me until I could barely breathe.

"That's enough!" A cool, commanding male voice cut through the chaos and tore the net wide open.

I turned toward the sound. "Joseph Simmons?"

He stood tall in a perfectly tailored suit, every line of him sharp and composed, his features carrying an air of cold refinement.

His bodyguards cleared the crowd in seconds. He slipped off his jacket and draped it over my shoulders. "Let me get you out of here."

I blinked, then nodded.

He swept me up in his arms and carried me all the way to his car.

Warm air flooded the interior, chasing the chill from my skin. He handed me a bottle of water, his voice low and gentle. "Those photos won't see the light of day, Ms. Harding. You have my word."

My throat was raw. "Thank you."

He let out a quiet laugh. "Don't mention it. I simply couldn't stand watching someone who once beat me fall this low."

Joseph's company had always been Stephens Corp's fiercest rival. Years ago, I'd snatched several key projects right out from under him. After I stepped back from the company, his firm had become the thorn in Piers's side that he could never pull free.

The realization hit me like a bolt of lightning. This man could help me.

The water bottle crackled under my grip. I knew that once I opened my mouth, there would be no turning back.

But then I thought of my mother's death. The three babies I'd never gotten to hold. Every last humiliation I'd swallowed.

My gaze hardened. "Mr. Simmons, I want to propose a partnership."

"A partnership?" Joseph raised an eyebrow.

I summoned every ounce of courage I had left, burning my bridges behind me. "I have intimate knowledge of Stephens Corp's lifelines and criminal evidence against Piers Stephens. I can help you dismantle his empire."

"In return, you help me leave him with nothing."

"Why me?" he asked.

I knew the answer all too well. Evidence meant nothing against power.

Piers's roots ran deep, and I had no one behind me. Not a single soul. Not even my own family would lift a finger.

When Julie ran over my mother and left her in a vegetative state, I'd taken her to court. My father, using his authority as her husband, had signed a victim's pardon letter on my mother's behalf and gotten Julie off scot-free. Even at my mother's funeral, he'd stood there defending Julie, scolding me in front of everyone for refusing to let the past go.

The only person I could think of who had both the means and the motive to go toe-to-toe with Piers was Joseph Simmons.

A bitter smile twisted my lips. "You're the only chance I have."

Joseph didn't press further. His gaze locked onto mine, sharp as a hawk's. "I'll help you. But in exchange, you do one thing for me. No questions asked."

"What is it?" I asked, guard instantly up.

The corner of his mouth curved. "I'll tell you when the time comes."

I drew a deep breath. I had nothing left to lose. What was there to be afraid of?

"Deal."

When I got home and pushed open the door, I was met with Piers's dark, thunderous expression.

"Where the hell have you been?" His tone was sharp. "You had a wardrobe malfunction on camera and then you just wander off? Do you have any idea how embarrassing that is?"

I scoffed. "You're the one who set me up. She's the one who made sure everyone was there to watch. And you both walked out and left me behind. But somehow I'm the one who should be embarrassed?"

He had nothing to say to that. After a long pause, his voice softened. "About what happened earlier. Julie and I want to take you to dinner to make it up to you. Tomorrow—"

"No need." I cut him off and turned to leave, but his hand clamped down on my shoulder.

Piers was clearly losing patience with my attitude. He forced his temper down, barely. "I know you're upset. But Julie is young. I can't just abandon her. If it really bothers you, I'll keep my distance from her after this one dinner. All right?"

"No need. It doesn't bother me." My voice was flat.

"It doesn't bother you?" Whatever patience he had left snapped. "Stop throwing tantrums! Julie is pregnant. Don't go upsetting her. You're coming to dinner tomorrow, and that's final. Are we clear?"

I said nothing. My hand drifted to my own stomach.

I was pregnant too.

But in his eyes, only Julie's feelings mattered. Mine weren't even worth considering.

Cold fury churned deep inside me, wave after wave. But then I thought of my agreement with Joseph, and I swallowed it down.

It was just one dinner.

I'd think of it as their last supper.

The next evening, Piers drove me to the restaurant himself.

When I pushed open the door to the private dining room, I found my father sitting beside Julie.

He was gently adjusting a hair clip for her, his expression soft with a tenderness I hadn't seen directed at me in years.

The moment he noticed me, the smile vanished. All that remained in his eyes was disgust.

I was long accustomed to that look.

There was a time when I'd been his little princess too.

That ended when my mother caught him cheating. Julie's mother and her daughter staged a dramatic exit, faking a car accident to make my father believe my mother's confrontation had nearly killed them.

From that day on, he despised my mother. And his love shifted entirely.

He skipped my graduation but drove Julie to and from school without fail, rain or shine. He forgot my birthday every year but could recite everything she'd eaten on any given day. He never had a kind word for me, yet he showered praise on every single one of her social media posts.

Now, I couldn't feel even a trace of fatherly love from him. Not a trace.

Throughout dinner, my father and Piers orbited Julie like satellites. Laughter, conversation, warmth. I sat among them like a ghost.

"Here, sweetheart, Daddy brought you something special!" He patted Julie's arm with a beaming smile. "To keep you and the baby safe!"

He reached into his pocket and produced a jade pendant on a silk cord. The surface was smooth and luminous, etched with a delicate pattern meant to ward off harm.

My entire body went rigid.

That was my mother's pendant.

Years ago, when she struggled to conceive, she had climbed to a mountaintop shrine to pray for it. Nine hundred and ninety-nine stone steps. Nine hundred and ninety-nine prostrations. She split her forehead open. Her knees were raw and bloody by the time she reached the top.

After I was born, she gave the pendant to me.

After the accident, I placed it around her neck and prayed it would keep her safe. It stayed there until the day she died.

And now it was a gift from my father to Julie.

"That belonged to my mother!"

"She's dead. What good is a pendant to a corpse?" My father shot me a cold glare. "Giving it to Julie is an honor it doesn't deserve."

He draped it around Julie's neck as he spoke.

Blood rushed to my head. I stared at him and forced every word through clenched teeth. "Do you even know whose child she's carrying?"

His expression froze. His eyes darted away.

That reaction told me everything.

He knew the baby was Piers's. And he'd been helping them deceive me.

"Daddy, I don't need it, really..." Julie's eyes reddened as she reached to take the pendant off.

Piers caught her hand to stop her, then turned to me with a look of reproach. "Geraldine, can't you just behave yourself?"

"Behave?" I laughed. "You steal my dead mother's keepsake, and I'm the one who needs to behave?"

I couldn't hold back any longer. I reached out and snatched the pendant back.

But my father grabbed the silk cord and yanked it hard.

"If you're going to make such a fuss, then nobody gets it!"

A sharp crack. The jade split into pieces and scattered across the floor.

Time stopped.

I stared at the shards. My mother had earned that pendant one prostration at a time, step by agonizing step. It had been my talisman since childhood.

Gone. Just like that.

My hands shook as I knelt to pick up the pieces. A jagged edge sliced my skin. Blood beaded on my fingertips and dripped onto the jade, mixing with the tears that fell before I could stop them.

Rage and grief nearly swallowed me whole. I lifted my head, my eyes burning red. "Remember what you did today. All of you."

I clutched the bloodstained shards and stormed out. I pressed my back against the cold door, fighting to steady the storm inside me.

Then I heard my father's voice through the door. A low, contemptuous laugh.

"Ignore her. Piers already has her assets. She won't be living the good life much longer."

The chill started in my chest and spread outward until it reached every limb, every fingertip.

So my father hadn't just known. He was an accomplice.

The last thread of love I'd held for him turned to ash in that moment.

But he was wrong. The one running out of good days wasn't me.

It was them.