Juliet Dunn waited outside the entrance of Jace's preschool, clutching the envelope her lawyer had dug up. She had been waiting for this moment, desperate to see the child she'd only glimpsed the day before. When she finally spotted that cherubic little face she'd been yearning for, tears sprang to her eyes. But reality snapped back with a sharp yank on her hair.

A stinging slap landed on her cheek, and she found herself looking up into Charleigh Mason's eyes. A bodyguard forced her to her knees before Charleigh. "Juliet, know your place. I'm ignoring your antics because Damien only sees you as a mild distraction. How dare you try to get close to Ace?"

Juliet, confused, asked in disbelief, "How dare you, as the other woman, treat me like this?"

Charleigh smirked. "Looks like you're even more naive than I thought. If I finished you off right here, right now, Damien wouldn't even blink."

"What are you saying… ah!" Before Juliet could finish, the bodyguard started pounding her with fists and kicks.

The commotion drew the attention of passersby. Their whispers rose as they watched the scene unfold. Charleigh's loud claim that she was teaching a "homewrecker" a lesson was enough to stop anyone from stepping in. Instead, some onlookers started filming on their phones. As Juliet lay battered, unable to lift her arms, Charleigh planted a foot on her face and contemptuously tossed her phone back to her before calling the police. "I'll show you exactly why you should know your place," Charleigh taunted.

At the police station, Juliet stared at the information glaring on the screen: Charleigh and Damien had been married for seven years. The realization hit her hard—she'd been the unwitting other woman all along.

"Young lady," Officer Amaia Carlson sneered, "why choose to wreck a home when you're so young?"

Juliet sat in shock, her face a mess of blood and tears. She couldn't tell which hurt more, her body or her heart.

When Damien arrived, he didn't even glance her way. He went straight to Charleigh, concern written all over his features. "Charleigh, are you okay? Didn't I tell you to leave these things to me? Are you hurt?"

Charleigh shook her head and simply said, "She followed Jace to his preschool."

Only then did Damien look at Juliet, their eyes meeting. What she saw wasn't the sympathy she'd hoped for, but pure annoyance.

"Mr. Freeman, given the circumstances, this can be classified as malicious stalking. Ms. Mason suggests seven days' detention—how would you like to proceed?" Officer Jakari Peterson asked.

Juliet waited for him to offer some explanation, but all she got was, "Let's go with that."

As the crowd dispersed, Juliet watched Damien carefully lead Charleigh away, extinguishing the last flicker of light in her heart.

"Remove your clothes," one of the officers instructed in the sterile confines of the station.

Juliet was bewildered. "What?"

"A strip search," the officer clarified. The words hit her like a storm.

Forced to comply, Juliet was held down, her dignity stripped along with her clothes. Cameras clicked without mercy, capturing her humiliation before they tossed her a standard detention uniform.

The next seven days were a haunting shadow over her life. The detention center held a mix of inmates. Once word got out that Juliet was there for being "the other woman," her torment was relentless. Her meals were thrown on the ground, she was assaulted over and over, and her hair was shoved into basins of water.

"You shameless homewrecker—you not only seduced someone's husband, you went after their kid!"

"How disgraceful can you be?"

"I heard she insulted the real wife, too!"

The abuse and humiliation never stopped. Juliet endured it for a grueling seven days before her release.

With her phone dead and her spirit crushed, she trudged home. The divorce papers she held were the only thing left of her dignity. With a bitter laugh, she tossed them into the fire, along with the fraudulent marriage certificates.

Suddenly, the sound of a key turning in the lock shattered the silence. It was Damien.

Juliet stood frozen, methodically feeding item after item to the flames. Damien watched her cherished belongings crumble to ash. "How did you figure it out?" he asked, brow furrowing.

Facing the man she'd loved for years, Juliet couldn't believe his unshakable calm even now. A bitter smile twisted her lips. "After everything, don't you think I'm owed an explanation?"

Damien stepped closer, wrapping his arms around her like old times. "Juliet, just hear me out. I did this for you. I gave you access to my life without all the baggage. Whatever Charleigh and I have—it's just a family arrangement."

A bitter laugh escaped her, calm on the surface despite the raging storm within. "So you tricked me into a sham marriage, sped up the delivery, and then handed my baby over to her?"

Damien averted his gaze, dodging the truth. "Juliet, we can still have more kids..."

"Enough." Juliet cut him off sharply. His words were still dripping with lies.

Ignoring her resistance, Damien tightened his grip. "Juliet, I came to discuss Jace. Don't you want to see him?"

Juliet froze, her voice stuck in her throat. How could she not ache to see her own baby? Now that she'd been freed, it finally clicked why Damien had come.

Damien and Charleigh were bound by a marriage of convenience. It wasn't until after the wedding that they discovered Charleigh couldn't conceive. To preserve powerful alliances and secure a legitimate heir for the Freeman legacy, everything—the courtship, the love, the wedding—had been a charade. Their families conveniently looked the other way while Damien scheduled regular medical screenings to vet her genetic suitability.

She was nothing but a pawn, exploited from start to finish.

"Fine," Juliet said, realizing that playing along was her only shot at seeing her son.

The drive to the private estate was dead silent. She realized this was Damien's actual home. To her surprise, Charleigh was waiting at the entrance. As they stepped out, Charleigh hooked her arm through Damien's with sickening affection. "Welcome back," she purred, then told the staff, "Show Ms. Dunn where to change."

Juliet understood that to see her son, she'd have to pose as a servant. She had no choice. Silently, she slipped into the uniform while the butler ran through the household rules. That's when she learned her child's full name: Jace Freeman.

The butler handed her a stack of clean linens and led her to a room. Through the partly open door, she heard heavy breathing and muffled moans—left ajar deliberately to rub in her humiliation. Juliet knew exactly who was in there. Charleigh was mocking her again, but all she could do was swallow her pride.

After what felt like an eternity, the activity ceased. "Come in!" Charleigh's voice rang out, deceptively sweet.

Damien, with his back to Juliet, wore fresh crimson scratches across his skin, seemingly indifferent to them being on display.

The room reeked of sweat and scandal. Head bowed, Juliet stepped in, fighting back nausea as she stripped the soiled sheets and put on clean ones.

Soon after, the sound of little excited footsteps came rushing closer. A young boy bounded into view, his hand held by a nanny. "Mom! Dad! You're both here! I'm back from school," Jace announced brightly.

Juliet Dunn's hands froze as she spun around to face the child who could have been her mini-me. Charleigh Mason pulled him closer with a smile. "Jace, come say hi. This is the new nanny."

Before Juliet could even blink, a toy came sailing through the air and smacked her right in the head. "Go away! Jace hates you! Mommy cries every time she sees your picture with Daddy!" the little boy screamed.

Juliet's outstretched hand fell helplessly to her side. Damien Freeman walked over, wrapping an arm around Charleigh and Jace. "Come on, let's eat. Jace must be starving."

At dinner, Jace kept dropping his fork on purpose, and each time, Juliet bent down to pick it up. Her knees throbbed against the hard floor, but she kept at it, desperate for just one more glimpse of the boy.

It was only when Charleigh stepped in that Jace finally settled down, though reluctantly. "Jace, eat your dinner properly. It's not nice to act up."

Through it all, Damien just watched in silence, like none of it was his problem.

"You! Get me a bowl of soup!" Charleigh snapped.

On autopilot, Juliet obeyed. But as she set the bowl down, Charleigh deliberately tipped it—the scalding liquid splashed onto Juliet's arm, instantly raising angry red welts.

A few drops landed on Charleigh's hand, and she gasped.

Damien was at her side in a heartbeat, gently lifting her hands. "Are you okay?"

He shot Juliet an annoyed glare. "God, can you be any more clumsy? You can't even handle one simple thing."

Biting back the pain, Juliet silently dabbed at her arm with a napkin. Her mind flashed back to when she was pregnant, and a few drops of hot soup had landed on her hand. Back then, Damien had iced it all evening, so worried he'd been.

She'd once believed that, over those four years, at least some of his care had been real. Now, it was painfully obvious it had all meant nothing.

Without Juliet noticing, little three-year-old Jace had crept closer. He gently blew on Charleigh's hand, comforting her. "Mommy, don't hurt. Jace make it all better."

When his innocent face turned towards Juliet, it was twisted with pure disgust. Somehow, he got his hands on another bowl of hot soup and flung it right at Juliet's face.

"Aah...!" she cried out, the pain searing across her forehead—right where the old wounds hadn't even healed yet.

In that household, even the smallest member held all the power. "Get the guard! Throw her in the pool! She's gotta learn her lesson for hurting my mommy!" Jace ordered.

Damien moved to step in, but Charleigh cut him off. "Damien, you promised you wouldn't upset me again."

Damien's fists unclenched. He looked away, ignoring the sight of Juliet, broken and trembling.

Juliet's nails bit deep into her palms as she shook violently, then she was roughly hauled away.

The temperature was below freezing, and a thin layer of ice had already formed on the pool. They tossed her in without a second thought. The ice-cold water swallowed her whole.

After struggling, she finally got to her feet and tried to climb out. But again, the little boy's voice cut through the air. "Make her stay in there for an hour before she's allowed out!"

Juliet stared at that innocent face—so much of him looked like her, but even more like Damien. She forced her shivering to stop and answered, "Yes, young master."