Chapter 2

The next day, I returned to Hart Foods, the company my mother had built from nothing.

This place should have been home.

Instead, two security guards stopped me outside the entrance.

“Sorry, Ms. Bennett. Mr. Reed’s orders. No unauthorized visitors.”

Unauthorized.

I was an unauthorized visitor at my own family’s company.

Anger burned in my chest. The moment the guards looked away, I charged inside like a woman possessed.

I kicked open the door to my mother’s office.

Chloe was sitting in the executive chair.

She was wearing my mother’s favorite embroidered silk dress.

Far from panicking when she saw me, Chloe deliberately stood up and gave a slow turn.

Her pale thigh flashed through the high slit.

“Look, Claire.”

She stroked the delicate embroidery, smiling.

“Don’t you think Evelyn’s dress fits me better?”

“She always said you slouched too much. You didn’t have the poise to carry off fabric this beautiful.”

I was shaking so hard with rage that I couldn’t speak.

Then the office door opened, and Walter Brooks, the company’s attorney, walked in.

He handed me a document.

“Ms. Bennett, this is the agreement you signed last week, transferring your shares without compensation. Legally speaking, you no longer own the company.”

My mind went blank as I took it.

There it was in black and white.

My signature, clear as day.

I froze.

Lucas had brought me a document the week before. He’d said it was a prenuptial property agreement to reassure Mom and prove he wasn’t after our money.

I’d actually been touched by his “thoughtfulness.”

He’d already been setting his trap.

I jerked my head up and looked at Walter.

“Walter, you were practically my father’s brother. You watched me grow up! How could you help them trick me?”

A flicker of guilt crossed his cloudy eyes, then vanished.

Avoiding my gaze, he said quietly, “Claire, don’t make a scene. Lucas is doing what’s best for the company. You’re young. You don’t understand business.”

“She doesn’t understand business?”

An icy voice came from the doorway.

Lucas walked in and casually slipped an arm around Chloe’s waist.

He gave me a contemptuous glance.

“For your mother’s sake, I can offer you a job washing dishes in the company cafeteria. Two thousand a month, meals and a room included. Interested?”

“You—”

Chloe tugged on his sleeve, putting on a concerned face. “Lucas, don’t talk to Claire like that.”

As she spoke, she took a box from my mother’s desk drawer.

My heart clenched.

It was my childhood treasure box.

Chloe opened it and pulled out a battered little cookbook I’d drawn by hand.

Smiling, she turned to the pumpkin pie page. My childish, crooked handwriting read, “Mommy loves my pies best.”

Chloe acted as if she’d found the funniest joke in the world.

“You were so naïve, Claire.”

“Evelyn told me eating your food was torture. She only forced it down because she didn’t want to hurt your feelings.”

No. That wasn’t true.

Mom had told me she liked my cooking.

Lucas snatched the cookbook from Chloe.

Right in front of me, he slowly tore it apart, one page at a time.

The words “Mommy loves” split in two.

Then into countless pieces.

That was my childhood. The last little scrap of warmth I had left from my mother.

Now it was shredded.

“Throw her out,” Lucas ordered coldly.

The two guards rushed in and seized my arms.

They dragged me away, then dumped me outside the glass doors like a bag of trash.

The sunshine was blinding.

But I felt cold all over.