Chapter 1
With her leg broken and 52 missed calls on her phone, her husband ordered her to get up and cook for his mother… without knowing she owned the company that signed his paychecks.
“Did you break your leg, or did you also forget my mother needs to eat?”
Brandon Cole’s voice roared through the speakerphone as Hannah Parker lay on a hospital gurney inside the emergency room at Mercy General Hospital.
Her tibia was fractured, her calf had nine stitches, and her dress was stained with dried blood. A motorcycle had hit her right after she left her bakery in the West Loop neighborhood.
The doctor stopped stitching for a second.
The nurse looked at the screen: 52 missed calls.
“Brandon, I’m hospitalized,” Hannah said again. “I can’t walk.”
He gave a cold laugh.
“Come on. You always turn things into a huge drama. My mom needs her low-sodium lunch before two. Order an Uber, come home, cook, and then go back to the hospital.”
The doctor looked up, stunned.
Hannah felt something inside her break, but it was not her leg.
For the last three years, she had cooked for Mrs. Evelyn, washed her clothes, gone with her to medical appointments, and endured being called “a woman with no ambition” because she ran a small bakery.
At the same time, Brandon bragged constantly about being the regional director of Summit Home Appliances, a home appliance chain that, in his mind, could not function without his leadership.
“Your mother is not my responsibility anymore,” Hannah said.
“What did you say?”
“And this marriage is not my responsibility either.”
She hung up.
Thirty minutes later, two police officers stepped into her treatment room. Brandon had reported that Hannah had abandoned a dependent elderly woman after a family dispute.
The doctor held up her medical record.
“The patient was admitted at 12:18 p.m. after being struck by a vehicle. She cannot stand.”
One of the officers called Brandon using his official phone.
“Your report does not match the facts.”
Brandon immediately softened his tone.
“I didn’t know it was that serious.”
“You didn’t know because you never asked,” Hannah replied from the gurney.
That was when his temper snapped.
“Go ahead and make a scene. But if you divorce me, the house in Highland Park, the SUV, and the bank account stay with me. You walk away with your cast and the clothes on your body.”
Hannah looked at the white ceiling and spoke with a calmness that clearly frightened him.
“You’re wrong. I’m taking back my capital.”
“What capital?” he mocked. “You sell pastries and pies.”
“My first capital is myself.”
Then she requested copies of her medical report, her X-rays, and her call history. After that, she called the bank, the notary, her attorney, and Michael Bennett, CEO of Summit Home Appliances.
“I need a surprise audit of Brandon Cole,” she ordered.
Michael stayed quiet.
“Are you going to tell him who you are?”
“Not yet. I want to see how long he takes to destroy the chair I paid for.”
Brandon did not know Hannah had founded Summit Home Appliances before they got married, and that her shares were protected through a trust called Aurora Capital.
To him, she was nothing but a baker he enjoyed humiliating.
Fifteen minutes later, Brandon and Mrs. Evelyn burst into the emergency department.
“Are you done with this little show?” he shouted.
“I’m starving while she’s lying around in bed!” his mother complained.
Hannah pressed the nurse call button.
“Security, please.”
Mrs. Evelyn pointed at her with a trembling finger.
“When you leave this family, you are not taking even a single spoon.”
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Hannah held her gaze calmly.
No one could have imagined what that threat had just set in motion.
