He had put his own son or daughter in danger to protect his fortune; and in doing so, he had lost the fortune to that same child.

The money he had betrayed his marriage and risked his baby to keep would now be held, in trust, for the baby, and administered by the honorable men and women he had counted on to protect him, and who had, instead, chosen to protect her.

Julian stared at his father, and then at his weeping mistress on the floor, and then, at last, at me, and I saw in his face the complete and final collapse of a man who had, in the space of a single hour, lost his job, his wealth, his marriage, his family, and his good name, all of it forfeited to the cruelty he had been so sure he would get away with.

Chapter 20 — I Am Standing