And for the first time, Victoria understood that a blind woman should not have to be married to a billionaire to deserve basic human respect.

For years she had believed that losing her wealth would be the greatest humiliation imaginable.

Now she knew there was something worse: realizing you had been cruel simply because you believed there would never be consequences.

That realization, arriving in a locked cafe restroom over a stranger she had helped to the register, was the true bottom of Victoria’s fall, lower than the sold mansion, lower than the handbags she had parted with, lower than the name no one respected anymore.

Because losing money is a misfortune, and it can happen to anyone, and it carries no shame in itself.