"My flight from Singapore landed shortly after five in the morning, two full days before anyone expected me home.

"Get out of my way, Marcus," I said, my voice dangerously calm as I held Claire tighter against my chest.

Marcus didn't move. He had always been our mother's favorite—ambitious, ruthless, and entirely lacking in conscience. While I had managed the family’s international logistics firm in Singapore for the past five years, Marcus had stayed in Ohio, slowly bleeding the family funds dry with bad investments.

"You don't understand the situation, big brother," Marcus sneered, tapping the leather portfolio. "Father’s original will... the one leaving seventy percent of the holding company and the estate to you... it had a contingency clause."

"I don't care about the company right now," I spat. "My wife needs medical attention."

"She stays here until she signs the power of attorney transfer!" Eleanor declared, her voice sharp as glass. "She attempted to steal confidential family documents from your father’s safe last night!"

"I didn't steal anything!" Claire cried weakly from my arms. "Your father left a letter for Julian in his desk! I found it by accident when I was looking for the spare keys! It proves Eleanor and Marcus modified the trust after his stroke!"

The color drained from my mother’s face, replaced immediately by a glare of pure venom.

"She’s lying," Marcus snapped. "She’s a gold-digger who tricked you into marriage, Julian. Now put her back in the cottage, or I call security and have her arrested for breaking and entering into the main safe."

"Call them," I said, taking a step forward. "Call the police, Marcus. Please. Let’s have the police come to the Vance estate right now and explain why an eight-month pregnant woman was locked in a unheated shed in forty-degree weather. Let’s see how the board of directors reacts to that headline on the front page tomorrow."

Marcus hesitated. He looked at Eleanor, whose lips were pressed into a thin, white line.

I didn't wait for them to process their miscalculation. I shoved past Marcus, striking his shoulder hard enough to knock him back onto the grass. He stumbled, cursing, but didn't dare grab me.

I carried Claire straight past the main house to my rental car parked near the side entrance. I laid her carefully in the passenger seat, cranked the heater to maximum, and pulled out of the gates before my mother could even call the front gate guard.