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.

"But Grandma Abbott fainted because of me. She's definitely going to blame me..."

Grandma? My heart seized.

"I've already taken care of things at the hospital. Don't worry."

Piers's voice was light, almost careless, but it sent ice through my fingertips.

There was a time when he'd rush to Grandma's side at the slightest sign of discomfort, refusing to leave until she was better.

Back then, he'd told me, "I love you, so of course I'll take care of the people you love."

But if everything he'd ever done for me was a lie, why would he lift a finger for Grandma?

He went on. "This isn't your fault. She's old. These things happen. And to make sure Geraldine doesn't come after you over this, I won't let the old woman wake up."

Every drop of blood in my body ran backward.

His "taking care of things" had nothing to do with getting Grandma better treatment.

He was trading her life for Julie's peace of mind.

To protect that woman, he wouldn't even spare my last living relative.

I stumbled out of the restaurant, dialing Grandma's number with shaking hands. A hospital nurse picked up. I demanded the address and raced there.

The moment I burst through the door of her room, I almost couldn't believe what I was seeing.

Grandma lay motionless, her ashen face threaded with tubes, unconscious and utterly still.

I took her withered hand as gently as I could. The tears came instantly.

Just days ago on the phone, her voice had been strong and sure. I'll always have your back, she'd said.

Now Julie and Piers had reduced her to this. A woman her age, suffering like this because of them.

I clenched my jaw so hard pain shot through my skull, and the pain dragged me back to something resembling reason.

This was a hospital Piers had already gotten to. I had to get Grandma out. Now.

I contacted Joseph to help arrange a transfer. On my way to handle the paperwork, I ran straight into Julie.

"There you are! How did you end up here? Piers and I have been looking everywhere for you."

I didn't slow down. "Get out of my way."

I'd known the moment I showed up here, Piers would be notified. But I had no time or patience to waste on her.

She grabbed my wrist, hard. The mask slipped, and the malice in her eyes was naked. "So you found out about the old hag."

"But there's something else you definitely don't know. About your mother."

My feet stopped before I could tell them not to.

She leaned in close to my ear, her voice cold as a blade. "Your mother actually woke up before she died."

"Piers kept it from you. He injected her with drugs to keep her in a coma."

My mind detonated. I stood frozen, trembling so violently I couldn't stop.

Mom had woken up. That meant she...

"That's right." Julie read my thoughts, and the corners of her pointed mouth curled high. "She was conscious when she died."

"After the machines were shut off, she fought to breathe. Her body was like a punctured bellows. I've never seen anyone's chest heave that hard."

"She even opened her eyes. I recorded the whole thing, her eyes rolling back, all of it. Want to see?"

My chest heaved violently. Every breath felt like being flayed alive.

Was this what Mom felt in her final moments?

No. What she endured must have been a thousand times worse than this.

"You want to know how I know all this?" Julie tilted her head, her voice dripping with mock innocence. "Because I'm the one who turned off the machines."

Crack.

I put every ounce of strength in my body behind my hand and slapped her across the face. I wanted her dead. I wanted her to pay for my mother's life right then and there.

"Geraldine!"

Piers's furious roar erupted behind me. A brutal force wrenched me around, and a vicious slap crashed across my face.

"Julie is pregnant. How dare you touch her?" His voice was low and seething. "Apologize. Or I pull the plug on your grandmother's treatment right now."