The first thing I saw was my husband standing half-dressed beside our bed.

The screen of my phone glowed in the dark guest room, casting a pale light over my trembling hands.

On the live security feed, a tall man dressed in a tailored charcoal suit stood in the middle of my kitchen. He casually set a leather briefcase onto the island counter and poured himself a glass of water, acting as though he owned the house.

It wasn't Damon. It wasn't Claire.

It was Victor Vance—Damon’s older brother and the chief legal counsel for Vance Enterprises, the real estate development empire their family owned.

Victor had always treated me with cold, polite distance. While Damon played the charming, easygoing younger brother who handled public relations and client acquisition, Victor was the silent force behind the family fortune. He was ruthless, brilliant, and fiercely protective of the Vance family name.

Why did he have his own private access code to my home? And why was he here at eight o'clock on a Tuesday night while Damon was supposedly back at his office?

I tucked my phone into my pocket, took a deep, steadying breath, and placed a protective hand over my baby bump. The weak, light-headed wife Damon had left behind four hours ago was gone. In her place was a mother who would do whatever it took to shield her daughter from the nest of vipers I had foolishly called a family.

I padded silently down the hardwood stairs, stopping just out of sight near the kitchen entrance.

Victor was on the phone, his deep voice calm and calculated.

"He panicked, Owen," Victor was saying into his headset. "Damon called me twenty minutes ago sweating through his shirt. He left his wife downstairs pretending to feel sick while Claire was still crouching in the master closet."

My heart hammered against my ribs. Owen? He was talking to Owen—Claire’s fiancé.

"I don't give a damn about Damon’s marriage, Owen," Victor continued, pacing toward the floor-to-ceiling windows. "What I care about is the five million dollars in commercial assets we are transferring through the trust tomorrow morning. If Evelyn finds out about the affair tonight and hires a divorce attorney before those papers are notarized, she has a legal claim to half of Damon's portfolio under state marital property laws."

A cold sweat broke out across my back. This wasn't just an affair. It was a pre-meditated financial setup.

"Listen to me, Owen," Victor snapped, his tone darkening. "You keep Claire under control. She was stupid enough to leave her custom lingerie on the floor. If Evelyn asks you about Claire's whereabouts today, you tell her Claire was with you at the wedding venue in Sonoma. Got it? We keep Evelyn quiet for two more weeks. Once the restructuring is finished, Damon files for divorce on grounds of emotional instability, claims full custody of the baby, and Evelyn leaves with nothing."

I pressed my back against the wall, my teeth digging into my lower lip to keep from making a sound.