He served me divorce papers while I was carrying his baby. I was still his wife. I still wore his ring. I still believed there was a small part of Odell Carter that loved me. Then his beautiful muse stood beside him and smiled while my world fell apart. Odell called me unstable. His family called my unborn child a Carter heir. His mother wanted my baby. And when I begged him to choose me, he looked me in the eye and said the words that killed my heart. “I’ve only ever felt nothing but hatred for you.” That night, I stopped being his wife. I became a mother. I ran with my child before the Carter family could take her from my arms. For three years, I lived in hiding. No Carter money. No Carter name. No husband. Just my little girl, Lila Ross. Then I returned to Westchester City with a new life, a new name, and a daughter who had his eyes. Odell saw her once. And everything changed. Now he wants the truth. He wants his daughter. He wants my forgiveness. He even wants me back. But the same people who destroyed me are still hiding secrets. His muse is not done. His mother is not finished. And the Carter family has a file that proves they planned to take my baby before she was even born. Odell says he is sorry. He says he will burn his empire to protect us. But I remember the man who stood silent while I begged. And when he asks for another chance, I only have one answer. Sorry, Odell. That ship has sailed.

I was not supposed to marry Frederick Mills. I was supposed to marry an old man. I was desperate. My mother was sick. Our family company was dying. So when Leonard Graves offered me a way to save both, I put on the wedding dress and walked down the aisle. Then the groom lifted my veil. It was not Leonard. It was Frederick Mills. The richest man in the city. The man who was supposed to marry Zara Beaumont. Zara had vanished. I was standing in her dress. My name was on the marriage papers. And the ring on my finger was not just a wedding ring. It was the key to a secret powerful people had killed to hide. Frederick called me a mistake. His mother called me collateral. The world called me a gold digger. But when my mother was taken, when Zara came back with warnings, and when the truth about my father’s death came out, Frederick became the one man standing beside me. Not in front of me. Beside me. He offered me freedom. He offered me an annulment. He gave me the one thing no one else in his world wanted me to have. A choice. But how do I love the man whose family ruined mine? And how do I walk away from the husband who finally chose me when everything was burning?