"Five years after my ex told me leaving me was his smartest decision, my four-year-old yelled “Mommy!”—and when my husband walked over, my ex went pale.

I sat in my corner office at Ellis & Associates Risk Consulting in downtown Savannah, reviewing a risk assessment deck for a local manufacturing client. My glass desk was neat, my coffee was hot, and my life was entirely under my control.

Until my assistant, Sarah, knocked nervously on my glass door.

"Maren? There’s a woman in the lobby demanding to see you. She doesn't have an appointment, but she says it’s urgent and personal."

I raised an eyebrow. "Who is it?"

"She gave her name as Vanessa Crowley."

I paused, setting my pen down on the mahogany surface. Part of me wanted to tell Sarah to have security escort her out of the building. I had zero obligation to speak to the woman who had knowingly engaged in an affair with my husband five years ago.

But my risk-consultant instincts whispered that a desperate enemy is a dangerous enemy.

"Show her in, Sarah. And leave the door slightly ajar."

A moment later, Vanessa walked into my office. The immaculate, icy socialite from Saturday night was gone. In her place was a woman visibly unraveling. Her designer suit was slightly wrinkled, her eyes were bloodshot behind dark sunglasses, and her expensive leather tote bag was clutched against her stomach like a shield.

"Maren," she said, her voice strained.

"Vanessa," I replied neutrally, gesturing toward the leather armchair across from my desk. "Please, sit."

She didn't sit. Instead, she began pacing the length of my rug. "Drew didn't come home last night."

"I'm sorry to hear that, but Drew's whereabouts are no longer my concern. They haven't been for half a decade."

"The Port Authority froze his dock permits at 8:00 AM this morning!" Vanessa snapped, stopping to glare at me. "My father got a call from the regional director asking why Halston Logistics was under federal investigation for falsified customs declarations! Do you have any idea what this is doing to my family's reputation?"

"Vanessa," I said calmly, leaning back in my chair. "Your family's reputation was endangered the moment Drew signed those fraudulent manifests. Not when Owen's firm discovered them."

Vanessa’s hands began to tremble. She removed her sunglasses, revealing dark circles beneath her eyes. "He told me you were insane, Maren. When he left you, he told me you were unstable, that you drove him to debt, that you were trying to drain his business accounts during the divorce."

I looked at her, feeling a strange mix of residual anger and profound pity. "Drew was projecting. Everything he accused me of doing back then was exactly what he was doing behind my back."

"Did he... did he forge your signature on things when you were married?" Vanessa asked, her voice dropping to a terrified whisper.

I froze. The room suddenly felt very cold. "What did you just say?"

Vanessa reached into her tote bag and pulled out a thick, blue-bound legal document, slamming it onto my desk. "My father gave Drew a two-million-dollar personal loan three years ago to help build his secondary warehouse. I was going through his home safe last night while he was out... and I found the original guarantor contract."

I looked down at the document.