CHAPTER 3: A Signature Before Midnight

The documents sat on the piano bench like something ashamed of itself.
Camden had brought them in a leather folder stamped with the logo of his law firm. He placed a gold pen beside them, as if good stationery could disguise what he was asking her to give away.
On another page, Mara saw the phrase medical discretion. Camden had underlined nothing, but he did not need to. He wanted room to declare her overwhelmed, unstable, too tired to manage her own affairs.
The insult was not hidden in the papers. It was hidden in the assumption that she would be too frightened to read them carefully.
Mara read only the first page before she understood.
Amendments to marital assets.
A quiet transfer of voting rights.
Temporary control of the Whitmore trust until the child was born.
Temporary was Camden’s favorite lie.
He stood between her and the staircase, jacket open, patience fading from his face.
“Sign it tonight,” he said. “We can discuss appearances later.”
“Appearances?” Mara asked.
Sloane laughed under her breath.
Camden’s eyes hardened. “You have been emotional. The board knows it. The doctors know it. Everyone knows it.”
Mara felt the child move beneath her palm, a small pressure in the quiet.
For one second, fear rose sharp and hot.
Then it cooled into something better.
“You called my dignity emotional,” she said. “That was your first mistake.”