Chapter 2 - The Morning After
I woke up on Sarah’s cramped but warm living room sofa, my hands instinctively flying to my stomach to ensure my baby was still safe.
A soft, reassuring kick against my palm brought a fresh wave of hot tears to my eyes.
The morning news was playing softly on the small television in the corner, and my heart completely stopped when I saw my own face flash across the screen.
The headline read that the Kensington heir was filing for a high-profile divorce following shocking allegations of his wife’s infidelity.
Eleanor had not wasted a single minute; she had leaked the fabricated story to the press before the sun even rose.
She wanted to control the narrative, painting me as a gold-digging fraud so that society would completely blackball me.
Sarah walked into the room holding a mug of hot tea, her expression a mixture of profound sympathy and boiling anger.
She handed me the mug and told me that the hospital where I worked as a pediatric nurse had already called her asking about my whereabouts.
The administration had placed me on an indefinite, unpaid leave of absence due to the media circus surrounding my sudden scandal.
Julian and Eleanor were systematically dismantling every single pillar of my life, leaving me with no income, no home, and a ruined reputation.
I borrowed Sarah’s laptop and logged into my personal email, hoping to find some shred of a lifeline.
Instead, I found an eviction notice from my landlord back in Detroit; my mother-in-law had somehow stopped the automatic payments for my parents' modest house.
Eleanor was going after my hardworking, innocent parents, trying to starve me out by threatening the people I loved most in this world.
I closed the laptop slowly, a dangerous, absolute calm washing over my previously panicked mind.
Tears were a luxury I could no longer afford.
I asked Sarah if she still knew that incredibly stubborn, brilliant lawyer who used to represent the nurses' union during the strike.
She nodded, a slow, knowing smile spreading across her face as she pulled out her phone to make the call.
His name was Marcus Thorne, and he was known for utterly despising arrogant billionaires who thought they could buy the law.
I was going to need a shark to fight the Kensington family, and Marcus was the biggest, meanest predator in Boston.
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The Kensingtons thought I was just a weak, pregnant nurse who would quietly disappear into the shadows out of shame.
I was about to teach them exactly what happens when you corner a mother who has absolutely nothing left to lose.
