“Because I intend to use your resources just as much.” We shook hands, and that was how the alliance began.

With documents pulled from my father’s archives and the money my mother had left me, I founded Parker Capital, and our first move was not gentle: we bought a controlling stake in the very development the Ashfords and the Kesslers had been fighting over for months.

The press found the story. The stabbed wife returns as a businesswoman, one headline read.

I hated it.