For the sake of his childhood sweetheart, my husband tossed a $300 million settlement at me and demanded an immediate divorce. Then he glared at our eight-year-old son and sneered, “Take him. The boy is yours. I refuse to claim a son who is so mentally deficient.” But on the day we finally stepped into the courtroom, my little boy needed exactly twelve seconds to bring their entire dynasty crashing to the ground.

The hallway outside the courtroom was absolute chaos. The press had somehow gotten wind of the bombshell, and cameras flashed like lightning as Julian stumbled out of the double doors.

He looked like a man waking up from a coma.

"Clara!" he yelled, trying to push past his own security detail to reach me. "Clara, wait! Please! We can talk about this!"

I stopped, holding Leo securely by my side. "There is nothing to talk about, Julian. You offered me a settlement. I settled it."

Elena rushed up behind him, her face flushed with anger and terror. She grabbed his arm. "Julian! What is going on? Her lawyers just called my bank! My accounts are frozen! The ER Holdings money is gone!"

Julian turned on her, his mask of the perfect, loving partner completely disintegrating. "Shut up, Elena! Just shut up!"

"Don't you tell me to shut up!" Elena shrieked, no longer the soft, purring mistress. She looked like a cornered rat. "I gave up my life for you! You promised me a billion-dollar empire, not a criminal investigation! If I go to jail for this, I am testifying against you!"

Julian looked at his childhood sweetheart—the woman he had thrown his family away for—and saw her true colors for the very first time. She didn't love him. She loved the money he had stolen for her.

"You're pathetic," I said, looking at both of them.

Julian fell to his knees in the middle of the marble hallway, right in front of a dozen flashing cameras. "Clara... Leo. I'm your father. Please."

Leo looked down at the man who had called him mentally deficient.