Margaret didn’t stop. She leaked photos of our courthouse wedding and told the press I’d trapped Richard for his fortune. Reporters camped outside the estate.

Parents at the girls’ school whispered; one woman called them “the maid’s children.” Richard pulled them out and hired a private tutor until the harassment died down.

His own foundation suffered for it. Sponsors withdrew. Board members told him to distance himself from me. Late one night I overheard him on the phone outside his study.

“Leave her,” the board chairman was saying. “Buy her a house if you have to. End this scandal.”

“I didn’t purchase a wife,” Richard said. “I chose to protect my family.”

“You’re going to lose everything.”