Chapter 1 - A Plot from Above
The villa stood on the edge of the Mediterranean cliffs like something designed for people who had never been afraid of losing anything.
White stone walls.
Tall glass windows.
A terrace overlooking a blue sea that stretched endlessly beneath the afternoon sun.
For outsiders, the Bellamy villa represented perfection.
For Elena Bellamy, it had become a beautiful prison.
At twenty-nine, Elena was eight months pregnant and exhausted from pretending everything was fine.
She stood barefoot on the rooftop terrace, one hand resting protectively over the curve of her stomach.
Her unborn daughter moved beneath her palm.
“Easy, sweetheart,” Elena whispered.
Behind her, the terrace doors opened.
She didn't need to turn around.
She already knew who it was.
Victoria Bellamy.
Her mother-in-law.
The woman who had never once called Elena by her name without making it sound like an accusation.
“You're still standing out here?”
Elena turned slowly.
Victoria wore a cream-colored dress and expensive sunglasses.
Even at home, she looked as though she were preparing to be photographed.
“I needed some air.”
Victoria smiled thinly.
“You always need something.”
Elena ignored the comment.
She looked toward the sea.
Daniel had promised he would be home that evening.
He had been away for five days attending business meetings in Monaco.
Five days without seeing him had felt longer than the entire pregnancy.
She touched her stomach.
“Your father will be home tonight.”
Victoria's expression hardened.
“You still speak as though Daniel belongs to you.”
Elena looked at her.
“He is my husband.”
Victoria laughed.
“For now.”
The words sent a chill through Elena.
“What does that mean?”
“It means things change.”
Victoria moved closer.
“You really think giving Daniel a child makes you permanent?”
Elena's heart tightened.
“I never said that.”
“You didn't need to.”
Victoria looked down at Elena's stomach.
“That child changes everything.”
Elena instinctively covered her belly.
Victoria noticed.
“Don't be dramatic.”
“You seem angry that I'm pregnant.”
“I am angry about what your pregnancy will cost this family.”
Elena frowned.
“What are you talking about?”
Victoria removed her sunglasses.
“Daniel controls the company.”
“Yes.”
“But the family trust is more complicated.”
Elena stared.
“What trust?”
Victoria smiled.
“Exactly.”
She walked past Elena toward the edge of the terrace.
“Daniel never told you.”
“Told me what?”
Victoria looked over her shoulder.
“That the Bellamy family fortune does not automatically go to your husband.”
Elena said nothing.
“Your child will become the legal heir.”
Her voice became colder.
“And if that child is a girl, everything changes.”
Elena's stomach tightened.
“What are you planning?”
Victoria laughed softly.
“You should be asking what your husband is planning.”
She walked away.
Elena remained alone.
The sea below looked impossibly far away.
For the first time, she wondered whether Daniel's recent distance had been caused by something more than work.
His late-night phone calls.
His secret meetings.
The way he avoided discussing the future.
The way Victoria watched her whenever she entered a room.
Elena had thought it was family tension.
Now she wasn't sure.
She picked up her phone.
She called Daniel.
No answer.
She tried again.
Nothing.
A message arrived.
I'll be home tonight. Don't worry.
Elena read it twice.
Then she looked toward the villa windows.
Victoria was standing inside.
Watching her.
And smiling.
Elena did not know that on a table in a locked room beneath the mansion, a legal document had already been signed.
A document that would determine what happened to her unborn daughter.
May you like
And her name was written directly beneath it.
Mother to be removed.
