Right after the divorce, my husband hugged his mistress and mocked her: “Now you’re just an old rag!” But 5 minutes later, 10 Rolls-Royces arrived and someone shouted: “Get in the car, ma’am!” The surprise was total, the end of it all came quickly.

“I find Miss Sterling much more elegant than those who hide their emptiness with luxury brands,” a tall man in a black suit said. He wiped the wine from my sleeve with a white handkerchief, causing the bullies to flee in embarrassment.

I looked up and felt a strange sense of familiarity when I saw his face. “I am Julian Reed, and I believe we were neighbors when we were children before the tragedy,” he said with a gentle smile.

Julian was now the president of TechVantage, a powerful competitor to the Solara Group, but he seemed genuinely concerned for me. He warned me that not everyone who smiled was a friend and handed me his card before disappearing into the crowd.

The next day, Julian called to warn me about a firm called Helvetti Capital that Silas was using to short the company’s stock. “They want the Florida project to fail so the stock crashes and they can buy the company for pennies,” Julian explained.

I asked him why he was helping a competitor, and he admitted he hated cowardly tactics and felt our family tragedies were linked. He asked if I knew anything about my parents’ accident twenty years ago, which made my blood run cold.