Chapter 2

The next morning, I went to Star & Grace Children's Trust.

The foundation had been established in the fifth year of our marriage. The startup capital came from my premarital trust.

"Star" was the name Adrian chose. "Grace" was mine.

Back then he'd had his arm around my shoulders and said that once the baby was born, we'd build the first children's reading room in whatever city the baby came into the world.

Star & Grace was not a commercial asset of the Moretti Family. It wasn't a charitable front the family used to dress up its business.

It was meant to be the first letter we wrote to our child together.

But when I walked through the doors, the lobby screen was looping that snow-mountain video.

The subtitles had been redone, made to look even more like a maliciously edited farce than the version circulating online.

The conference room door opened.

Nora Shaw stepped out wearing a pale dress, faint dark circles beneath her eyes from lack of sleep.

When I saw her, I stopped.

"Aren't you still on the mountain?"

"The video hit the trending page. Adrian asked me to come back and handle it." She held out a cup of warm water to me, her tone perfectly natural. "I took a foundation car down at dawn. He still has his original itinerary. He won't be back until this afternoon."

So he hadn't been unaware of the video blowing up.

He simply decided that having Nora manage the PR mattered more than coming back to check on me himself.

"Grace." Nora looked at my ashen face.

I didn't take the water.

"Who authorized the foundation to use that footage?"

The smile on her face didn't disappear, but her fingers slowly tightened around the cup.

"Adrian asked me to handle it. He said you've been emotionally unstable lately and it wouldn't be appropriate for you to make certain decisions yourself."

"He transferred my authority to you?"

"Just temporarily." Nora's voice was gentle. "Everyone knows your priority right now is rest. The foundation can't be affected by your personal emotions."

I looked at the screen.

In the footage, my cries of pain had been cut into comic sound effects. Nora stood in the snow, doubled over laughing. Adrian reached over from beside her to shield her from the wind.

He had once said that all public-facing content from the foundation had to be approved by me first.

Because a charity project should never exploit anyone's privacy for attention.

That rule had lasted less than a year.

"Take the video down."

"Grace, the story's already out there. If we pull it now, it'll look like we have something to hide."

"I said take it down."

A few people in the conference room lowered their heads. No one moved.

I took out my phone, called my lawyer, then handed a document to the foundation's director.

"Notify accounting. Freeze all future disbursements from my personal trust. Complete the withdrawal and asset liquidation by this afternoon."

The director's head shot up.

"Mrs. Moretti, the foundation's programs are already underway. Pulling funding will affect a great number of children's aid plans."

"Then handle it by the charter. Pause what can't be sustained. Transfer what can be transferred."

Nora's expression finally changed.

"You can't use children's lives as leverage just because of one video."

I looked at her. A dull ache pulled through my abdomen, and I raised my hand instinctively to press against it.

The postpartum swell was still there, not yet recovered. But there was no kick to answer me anymore.

"You can use my name to drive traffic, but I'm not allowed to take back my own money?"

She had nothing to say.

After the lawyer arrived, I signed the withdrawal declaration on the spot and filed to remove Grace Miller's name as managing principal of the foundation.

The name Star & Grace could stay for now. But the part that belonged to me had to be erased.

My hand shook badly as I signed.

Six years ago, when I lost my first child, Adrian sat with me on the hospital corridor floor all night.

He told me we'd have another child. That we'd have a real home, one that truly belonged to us.

Later, he used my trust to build this foundation. I thought he was anchoring his promise in the real world.

Now I was deleting my own name from it with my own hand.

This was the last gravestone I could leave for that future.

The ink on the documents was barely dry when Adrian's call came through.

Miles put it on speaker.

"Grace, what are you doing at the foundation?"

"Taking back my funding and my name."

"You're emotionally unstable right now. You can't make decisions on your own like this."

His voice dropped, and the weight of Don Moretti's authority pressed through the phone into the conference room.

"I've already notified the bank. Your supplementary black card is temporarily frozen. We'll talk once you've calmed down."

I raised my eyes to the glass door.

The foundation's logo still read Star & Grace.

"Did you freeze my card, or my last shred of choice in this family?"

A few seconds of silence on the other end.

"I'm trying to protect you."

"Then protect yourself."

I turned off the speaker and handed the signed documents to my lawyer.