"My husband whipped me 20 times for his mistress—5 minutes later, my billionaire dad wiped out his empire."

Inside the grand study, a warm fire crackled merrily in the stone hearth, casting golden reflections across mahogany bookshelves and plush velvet furniture.

Sitting in a leather armchair behind a massive oak desk was my father, Richard Hale.

At sixty-five, my father possessed a tall, commanding posture, silvering hair, and dark obsidian eyes that had made Wall Street executives tremble for forty years.

When he saw me walk into the room, his stoic, powerful expression instantly melted into a look of profound, agonizing heartbreak.

"Victoria," my father rasped, standing up immediately, walking across the oriental rug to wrap his broad, strong arms around my shoulders.

I buried my face against his coat, letting out a single, shuddering breath as the exhaustion finally caught up with me.

"I'm sorry, Dad," I whispered softly. "You were right about him from day one."

"Shh," my father soothed, his hand gently stroking my hair as the private family doctor stepped forward to treat the dark bruises on my back and arms. "You don't apologize for being loyal, my sweet girl. You apologize to no one. Daniel Miller thought he was playing a game with an ordinary man's daughter. He is about to learn what happens when you strike a dragon's child."

He turned his dark eyes toward Jonathan Vance, who stood near the doorway holding a second leather binder.

"Jonathan," my father commanded, his tone dropping into a low, lethal register that chilled the air in the room. "Where do we stand on the corporate audits?"

Jonathan opened the binder, his expression razor-sharp.

"Daniel Miller believed he was cleverly embezzling money from his own firm over the last three years to fund a private offshore account in Grand Cayman for himself and Vanessa," Jonathan reported. "He stole precisely four point two million dollars."

My eyes widened in surprise. "He was embezzling from Miller Construction?"

"Yes, Miss Hale," Jonathan nodded. "What he didn't realize was that eighty percent of the capital flowing into Miller Construction was derived directly from Hale Capital's private subsidiaries. Which means... he didn't just steal from his company. He committed federal grand larceny against Hale Global."