Chapter 1 — The Signature

“At least you’re poor.”

Those were the first words Rebecca Belmont whispered to her husband on their wedding day.

She stood beneath the forty-foot glass ceiling of Savannah’s tallest office tower, wearing a white silk gown her mother had chosen and holding roses she hadn’t.

Across from her stood a broad-shouldered man in a faded blue work shirt, worn boots, and a jacket that looked as if it had been borrowed for the occasion.

A canvas tool bag rested near his feet. A battered teddy bear with one missing eye poked out of the top.

Matthew Hale Mercer did not flinch. He simply looked at her with steady gray eyes and said, “I suppose there are worse things a husband can be.”

Behind Rebecca, her mother released an impatient breath. “Sign the papers,” Amelia Belmont ordered. “We’ve already wasted enough time.”

Rebecca lowered her gaze to the marriage certificate. Forty-two days. That was how long she had to remain legally married before the emergency provisions in her grandfather’s trust would release the money needed to save Belmont Maritime Supply.

Once the funds arrived, the company’s debts would be paid, its four hundred employees would keep their jobs, and Rebecca could annul the marriage.

Her mother had chosen Matthew because he appeared harmless. He had no visible property, no important family, no polished education, and no social standing worth exploiting.

He worked construction jobs around Savannah and lived with his five-year-old daughter in a modest apartment on the west side. Most importantly, he had agreed to sign a prenuptial contract surrendering any claim to the Belmont fortune.

Rebecca had met him only twice before the ceremony. She knew he was thirty-six. She knew his wife had died three years earlier. She knew he had a daughter named Lucy.