Right after the divorce, my husband hugged his mistress and mocked her: “Now you’re just an old rag!” But 5 minutes later, 10 Rolls-Royces arrived and someone shouted: “Get in the car, ma’am!” The surprise was total, the end of it all came quickly.

“This is only the beginning. Know your place and leave,” the note said, and a cold shiver ran down my spine. I realized my enemies weren’t just in the boardroom but were willing to use physical threats to stop me.

Mr. Jenkins arranged for bodyguards to escort me to the Charleston Business Summit where I was supposed to make my official debut. I wore a sophisticated blue silk dress but felt suffocated by the judgmental whispers of the high society women.

A girl with curled hair deliberately spilled red wine on my sleeve and mocked my small town roots. “I thought a Sterling would at least know how to walk in a ballroom,” she sneered until a deep voice interrupted her.

“I find Miss Sterling much more elegant than those who hide their emptiness with luxury brands,” a tall man in a black suit said. He wiped the wine from my sleeve with a white handkerchief, causing the bullies to flee in embarrassment.

I looked up and felt a strange sense of familiarity when I saw his face. “I am Julian Reed, and I believe we were neighbors when we were children before the tragedy,” he said with a gentle smile.

Julian was now the president of TechVantage, a powerful competitor to the Solara Group, but he seemed genuinely concerned for me. He warned me that not everyone who smiled was a friend and handed me his card before disappearing into the crowd.

The next day, Julian called to warn me about a firm called Helvetti Capital that Silas was using to short the company’s stock. “They want the Florida project to fail so the stock crashes and they can buy the company for pennies,” Julian explained.

I asked him why he was helping a competitor, and he admitted he hated cowardly tactics and felt our family tragedies were linked. He asked if I knew anything about my parents’ accident twenty years ago, which made my blood run cold.

I hired a private detective to investigate Penelope and discovered she was actually Silas Vance’s former personal secretary. They had used her as bait to control Gavin so they could keep an eye on me for years.

My anger burned brightly because I realized my entire marriage had been a fraudulent setup by a criminal organization. I returned to the office with a promise to make them pay, but then I received a frantic call from Mrs. Higgins.