I looked down at the ledger, and a hard smile spread across my face. Celeste believed she was the queen of the chessboard. She had no idea the debts underneath her entire life belonged to the man she’d thrown away.

Chapter 5 — See You in Court

The courtroom in the New York County Courthouse was a circus.

Celeste had made sure of it. She’d tipped off the tabloids and society columnists, packing the gallery benches with journalists eager to document the downfall of a disgraced military officer and the tragic “madness” of the Harrington heir.

She sat at the plaintiff’s table in mourning-black silk, dabbing perfectly dry eyes with a monogrammed handkerchief, playing the heartbroken matriarch forced to institutionalize her missing, unstable son and divorce his criminal, opportunistic wife.

Directly behind her, polished and secure, sat Colonel Vance — the man she’d bought to orchestrate my ruin.

The judge, a stern woman with no patience for theatrics, banged her gavel for silence.