Chapter 1 - The Folder Beside Her Hand
Owen was crying at the bottom of the grand staircase when Grant came through the front door.
Then he saw his mother.
Lorraine stood over the fifteen-month-old boy in her burgundy dress, pearls motionless against her throat, her face twisted with a rage Grant had never seen directed at his son before.
Her foot struck out.
Owen was knocked sideways onto the thick foyer runner, crying harder.
“Your bastard son gets nothing!” Lorraine screamed. “Get the hell out!”
Grant’s entire body changed.
“GET AWAY FROM MY SON!”
He charged across the foyer.
Lorraine moved toward Owen again, but Grant reached his son first and scooped him tightly against his chest.
Owen buried his wet face against Grant’s shoulder.
Lorraine still wasn’t finished.
She drove forward again, trying to force Grant and the baby toward the open door.
Grant turned his body so Owen remained protected, caught Lorraine’s arm, and ripped it away.
Then he slapped her across the face.
The sound cracked through the marble foyer.
Lorraine stumbled backward and dropped onto the carpet near the staircase.
Grant stood over her, chest heaving, Owen clinging to him.
He reached inside his jacket.
A folded legal folder hit the carpet beside Lorraine’s hand.
“You are the one who needs to get out of this house.”
Lorraine stared at him.
Grant’s voice dropped.
“Owen was left the inheritance by your husband before he was even born.”
The fury disappeared from Lorraine’s face.
She looked down at the folder.
Then back at Grant.
“No.”
Grant tightened one arm around his son.
Lorraine’s lips parted.
“No, Thomas would never—”
Grant cut her off.
“Read it.”
She did not touch the folder.
That frightened Grant more than denial would have.
Because his mother wasn’t confused.
She recognized something.
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And for the first time, Grant understood that his father’s final estate plan might not have been hidden from Lorraine at all.
She might have known exactly what Owen’s birth would cost her.
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