Alejandro walked into the Grand St. Regis with another woman—then froze when he saw his supposedly vanished lover, five months pregnant, working behind the service counter.

While the coastal house remained a sanctuary of quiet healing, the legal world was tearing itself apart.

Victor Montes had declared bankruptcy after his business partners abandoned him en masse. But Valeria had refused to go down quietly. Released on a massive ten-million-dollar bail put up by an offshore trust, she had vanished from the public eye—until the following Friday.

It was an unseasonably warm afternoon. Alejandro had been summoned back to the city for a mandatory deposition to finalize the criminal indictment against Valeria’s co-conspirators. He had left Marcus and three elite private security guards at the perimeter of the coastal home.

Elena sat on the porch swing, sipping mint tea, watching the gulls wheel over the crashing waves. The salty breeze brought a sense of peace that had eluded her for half a year.

Then, the garden gate clicked open.

Elena didn't look up immediately, assuming it was Marcus doing his hourly sweep. "Marcus, could you bring up the extra firewood from the—"

"Marcus is currently indisposed," a voice purred.

Elena froze. Her blood turned to slurry.

Standing at the bottom of the porch steps was Valeria Montes.

She looked unrecognizable. The designer silks and gold jewelry were gone. She wore an oversized black trench coat, her blond hair pulled back into a messy, unwashed knot. Her face was gaunt, hollowed out by rage and sleep deprivation, her manicured nails bitten down to the quick.

In her right hand, she held an old, unregistered snub-nosed revolver, kept low against her thigh.

Elena stood up slowly, her hand immediately covering her belly. The baby kicked violently within her, as if sensing the predator on the lawn.

"How did you get in here?" Elena asked, keeping her voice as steady as her racing heart would allow.

"Money can’t buy Alejandro’s love, but it can still buy a bypass code to a private security grid," Valeria sneered, walking up the wooden steps, the floorboards groaning beneath her boots. "Did you really think you could win, Elena? A gutless nobody from a fishing shack, taking everything that was supposed to be mine?"

"I never wanted your life, Valeria," Elena said, taking a cautious step back toward the front door. "I only wanted the father of my child."

"He was my fiancé!" Valeria screeched, her voice cracking like dry wood. The gun rose, pointing directly at Elena’s chest. "I gave five years of my life to that cold, ungrateful bastard! I molded him! I managed his public image! We were supposed to rule this city together! And you ruined it in five minutes with a handful of dirty papers!"

"You ruined yourself," Elena countered, her eyes darting toward the interior of the house, calculating the distance to the panic button behind the doorframe. "You lied. You forged documents. You tried to starve an unborn child."

"And I should have finished the job back on the coast," Valeria snarled, her finger tightening on the trigger. "If I’m going to prison for twenty years, I’m not leaving you here to play happy family with my fortune. Get inside. Now."