My hands trembled uncontrollably as I ripped open the seal of the manila envelope.
Inside were not only divorce papers and a degrading fifty-thousand-dollar check — it was a carefully planned blow meant to break me.
A second document, arranged by his cold new fiancée, Celeste Ashford, delivered an ultimatum that stole the air from my chest: sign the NDA and vanish forever, or the Hartwell legal machine would ruin my name and fight for full custody of my daughter the moment she was born.
They did not just want me erased from the story. They wanted my baby taken from me.
