Chapter 3
I stared at the photo until my eyes burned.
The zoom was tight enough to see the pink ribbons in Mia’s pigtails, the scuff on the toe of her sparkly sneakers, the gap where she’d lost her two front teeth the month before.
My blood turned to ice in my veins.
I ran down the hall to the guest room.
Mia was still asleep, curled around her rabbit, her chest rising and falling soft and steady.
I locked the window.
I double-checked the front door deadbolt.
I called Marcus at four in the morning.
He answered on the first ring, his voice alert, like he’d been waiting for my call.
“She sent a photo of Mia,” I said, my voice cracking. “At her school. I need two men on her twenty-four seven. Unmarked cars. Follow her to school, pick her up, stay on the block. No one gets within a hundred feet of her. I don’t care what it costs.”
“Done,” he said, no hesitation. “They’ll be at the house before she wakes up. Also—we closed on another four percent of Langford an hour ago. That brings your total to 22.2. We’re on track to hit 25 by the end of the day. And the rumor hit the business wires ten minutes ago. Langford stock jumped eight percent in after-hours trading. Elena’s office is blowing up. She’s demanding the board name the mystery investor by end of day.”
I breathed a small sigh of relief.
“Good,” I said. “Keep it going. I want her looking everywhere but at me.”
The custody hearing was the next afternoon.
I dropped Mia at school, waving until she was inside the doors, the two men Marcus had sent following at a discreet distance.
Then I drove to the courthouse, Sarah—my top litigator—beside me, Arthur behind me.
Elena was already there, sitting at the plaintiff’s table, wearing a soft black dress, her hair pulled back in a severe bun, fake tears already glistening in her eyes.
Next to her sat a woman I’d thought was my friend in college.
Jenna.
My old roommate.
The woman who’d been Mia’s first babysitter.
My stomach dropped.
I knew exactly what was coming.
The judge walked in, a sharp-faced woman in her sixties, and sat on the bench.
Elena’s lawyer stood first, his voice booming through the small courtroom.
“Your Honor,” he said. “Clara Langford is an unfit mother. For years, she has struggled with a secret cocaine addiction. She parties for days on end, leaving her six-year-old daughter with random nannies, neglecting her basic needs. She has embezzled millions from her late father’s company to fund her lifestyle. And we have a witness who can corroborate every word.”
He called Jenna to the stand.
Jenna walked up, her head down, and swore to tell the truth.
“Ms. Carter,” the lawyer said. “You lived with Ms. Langford in college, and babysat her daughter for the first two years of her life. What did you see?”
Jenna looked right at me, her eyes cold and empty.
“She used coke all the time,” she said, her voice steady, like she’d practiced the line a hundred times. “In front of the baby. She’d leave for three, four days at a time, wouldn’t answer her phone. I’d have to buy Mia formula with my own money. She didn’t care about that baby at all. All she cared about was partying and getting back at her stepmom for marrying her dad.”
The courtroom erupted in quiet whispers.
I clenched my fists so tight my nails dug into my palms.
Lies.
All lies.
I’d never touched cocaine in my life.
I’d never left Mia for more than a few hours, not even when I was pulling all-nighters building Voss Capital.
Elena had paid her.
I knew it.
Sarah stood up to cross-examine her, but before she could, Elena’s lawyer held up a hand.
“One more thing, Your Honor,” he said. “We have independent proof. Lab results from a hair follicle test taken from Ms. Langford last week, showing consistent cocaine use over the past six months.”
He handed a stack of papers to the judge.
My blood ran cold.
Elena had drugged me.
She’d had someone slip something into my coffee when I’d gone to the house to pick up Mia’s things two weeks prior.
That’s how she’d gotten the sample.
That’s how she’d planned to take Mia.
The judge looked over the papers, her face grave.
She looked at me, and I knew in that second she’d already made up her mind.
“Ms. Langford,” she said, her voice cold. “Given the severity of these allegations, and the evidence before this court, I have no choice but to grant Ms. Hale temporary full custody of Mia Bennett, effective immediately. You are allowed one supervised visit a week, at a location of Ms. Hale’s choosing. This ruling stands until a full trial can be held in six months.”
She banged her gavel.
The room spun.
Six months.
Six months without my daughter.
Six months of her living with Elena, being told I was a drug addict, being told I didn’t love her, being turned against me.
Elena stood up, smiling that cold, triumphant smile I’d come to hate.
She walked past me on her way out, leaning in so only I could hear.
“Told you,” she whispered. “I always win. By the time you get out of this, Langford will be mine. And Mia will be my daughter. You’ll be nothing but a bad memory she’s glad she forgot.”
She walked out.
Sarah squeezed my arm under the table.
“We can appeal,” she said, urgent. “We can prove the test was faked. We can prove Jenna’s lying. We just need time.”
I shook my head, pulling out my phone.
“Appealing will take months,” I said. “I don’t have months. I’m taking my daughter back. And I’m taking down every single person who helped Elena do this.”
I dialed the number I’d only called once before, the number of the most famous investigative reporter in the country, the woman who’d taken down three governors and a dozen corrupt CEOs.
“Hi,” I said, my voice steady. “It’s Clara Langford. I have a story for you. A story about a gold-digging stepmom who murdered a billionaire, faked a drug test to steal his granddaughter, and is about to burn his billion-dollar company to the ground for a kickback. And I have proof. All of it.”
I hung up.
I looked at Sarah.
“Get me the security footage from the family home the night Daddy died,” I said. “Every camera. Every second. Elena did something to him. I’m going to prove it.”
Sarah nodded and left.
I was walking out of the courthouse when my phone rang.
It was the school.
May you like
My blood ran cold.
“Ms. Langford,” the principal said, her voice tight. “You need to come get Mia right now. A woman showed up here ten minutes ago with court papers. She took your daughter. Said she’s her new legal guardian.”
