“You married a maid,” she said.

“You brought her and her siblings into this house, pretending they belonged here.”

“You defied me, Nathan, and you defied the legacy of this family.”

“But now you see the truth.”

She tapped the edge of the birth certificate in his hand with her manicured fingernail.

“She is Arthur’s daughter,” Eleanor said, gesturing toward me with pure disgust.

“She has more right to the Sterling name than you do.”

“If this document gets out, you are nothing.”

“The board of directors will strip you of your title before the day is over.”

“You will be cast out of the company, and out of this estate.”

“Everything you have built, everything you love, will be gone in an instant.”

Nathan’s chest rose and fell in rapid, shallow breaths.

He looked down at the paper, then at me, then back to his mother.

“You wouldn’t do that,” he said.

“It would ruin the family name.”

“The family name is already ruined by this circus of a marriage,” Eleanor snapped.

“I will do whatever it takes to protect what is mine.”