You think you can embarrass me? You belong to me!" Derek screamed as waiters tackled him onto the manicured gala lawn, leaving me kneeling on the grass

My father froze, his hands trembling on the shotgun, his eyes wide with unbearable anguish. "Derek... please. Take whatever money you want. I have cash accounts in Switzerland. I'll give you fifty million dollars tonight. Just let her go."

"Money?" Derek laughed, a dark, cracked sound that echoed down the hallway. "I don't give a damn about your money anymore, James! She destroyed my reputation! She humiliated me before the entire world! She belongs to me, and if I can't have my empire, I'm taking her!"

I felt the cold metal of the gun barrel pressing against my skin. Panic threatened to overwhelm me, but as I felt my baby girl kick violently inside me, a wave of fierce, unyielding motherly rage washed over the fear.

I wasn't the weak, terrified wife who let him strangle me at the gala anymore. I was a mother protecting her child.

"Derek," I whispered softly, letting my body go soft, leaning back into his chest as if surrendering.

He hesitated, his grip on my waist slackening slightly for a fraction of a second. "That's it, Tori. Good girl. You know you can't live without me."

"I used to think that," I whispered.

With every ounce of strength left in my body, I drove my right elbow backward into his broken nose—a spot where he had suffered an injury playing college rugby.

A sickening crunch echoed through the hall.

Derek screamed in pain, dropping the pistol as blood erupted from his face. He stumbled backward.

"Dad! Now!" I shrieked, dropping to my knees to protect my belly.

My father didn't hesitate. He stepped forward and swung the heavy wooden stock of the shotgun with all his force, cracking Derek across the side of his jaw. Derek went down hard, hitting the floorboards like a sack of bricks, unconscious.

The two hired mercenaries tried to draw their weapons, but Marcus and four Caldwell security guards burst through the side doors, subduing them within seconds and pinning them to the floor.

As the estate lights flickered back on, a sudden, sharp pain shot through my lower abdomen. I gasped, clutching my bump as a warm wave of fluid soaked through my dress.