Chapter 1 - The Clock Starts Ticking
The silence in my living room was so heavy it felt like it could shatter the windows.
Beatrice stared at me with wide, horrified eyes, her perfectly manicured hands trembling against her designer pearls.
The hired photographer slowly lowered his expensive camera, looking completely terrified to be trapped in this warzone.
“You cannot be serious,” Beatrice finally gasped, her voice completely devoid of its usual aristocratic arrogance.
I held baby Leo closer to my chest, feeling the steady, reassuring beat of his tiny heart against mine.
“I have never been more serious in my entire life, Beatrice,” I replied, my voice dangerously calm.
Liam finally snapped out of his pathetic, frozen trance and stepped toward me with a scowl.
“Have you lost your mind, Nora?” he demanded, his face turning a furious shade of crimson.
“You do not speak to my mother that way, especially not in front of company.”
I did not flinch, nor did I look away from the man I had foolishly promised to spend my life with.
“This is my house, Liam, bought and paid for with my money before I even knew you existed,” I reminded him smoothly.
“And I am formally revoking her invitation to stay here.”
Beatrice let out a dramatic, breathless sob, clutching her chest as if I had just stabbed her.
“Liam, are you going to let this disrespectful woman treat your mother like garbage?” she wailed.
He looked at me, his eyes pleading for me to back down and apologize like I always did.
But the old, submissive Nora died the second his mother tried to erase me from my own child’s family portrait.
“The timer has officially started,” I said, turning my back on both of them to walk toward the nursery.
“You have twenty-four hours to get her things out of my guest room, or I will throw them on the lawn myself.”
May you like
I closed the nursery door behind me, locking it with a satisfying click.
For the first time in years, I finally felt like I could breathe.
