"Charmed, as always, Spencer darling." She strode into the room without looking at him, on black stiletto pumps that put her almost eye to eye with me, and inclined her head. "Jackson…

I see the news has arrived before me," she drawled easily. She stared into my eyes, hers glittering triumphantly. "You may go now," she spoke toward Spencer without taking her eyes off me. "As a matter of fact, you can all go… This is just between you and me," she purred into my face.

"No one leaves," I heard my own voice boom out. My fists were balled tight. The fucking nerve of her… "There's no one here who's unaffected. And there is nothing between the two of us."

"We welcomed you," Mom came forward, her hands shaking. "We brought you into our family and welcomed you as our daughter… and this is what you do to us? To my son… to our family? You try to take everything generations of Masons have fought to keep…?"

Elaine threw her head back and laughed. "You never loved me. None of you did. I just happened to fit the mold is all." She swept her hair back and smiled. "You wanted a well-bred daughter in law and that's exactly what you got. To maintain the family image… to breed pedigreed grandchildren." She turned back to me.

"And you. You didn't want a wife," she spat out the word hatefully. "You wanted a houseful of children… and someone to wipe their snotty noses for you. I was foolish enough to try. How many years, Jack? And not a single child…?

I wasted my best years on you and all your empty promises. And the divorce settlement wasn't half enough to make up for that." She moved to the other side of my desk and sat down in my chair… "I took what I had coming, Jack. And I did it any way I could." She glanced from me to Libby and back again, slowly… purposefully. "After all, I learned from the best."

"You and Spencer bought up every share you could… In Mason… in Warner." My voice was calm, but my hands were in fists, my gut a tight ball of cold anger. "And along with half of my shares…"

"I now hold controlling interest in both companies," she finished. "Now they're merged into one, you're looking at the new CEO of one of the largest privately owned businesses in the south."

"You had enough to live a hundred comfortable lives, Elaine. And you ruined a good man." I looked over at Spencer, who looked ill. "If you'd had to, would you have tried to pass off his child as mine?"

"You fucking hypocrite," she shot back. "You faked a marriage! You bought a woman to give you the fucking baby you want so bad. And you passed her off to your entire family, your elite social circle as your new wife." Her lips curled into an ugly sneer as she stared straight at my parents' shocked faces. "He's the liar," she growled. "And any child that comes from her," she shot a glance at Libby's stricken face, "is nothing but a bastard mongrel. That girl has nothing… no one. She's nothing but a…"

Never in my life have I laid hands on a woman, but I gripped her arms till my fingers bit into her flesh and pulled her out of my chair.

"Not one more fucking word." I could feel her feet dangling above the floor. "You will never speak one fucking word about my wife ever again, or so help me… I won't be responsible." I let her go abruptly, suddenly disgusted at the feel of her in my hands. "Libby is my wife, from the day I met her until the day that I die." I looked across the room to her brilliant green eyes. "She's the love of my life… We belong to each other."

Elaine was shaken, unsteady, but turned in desperation to my family. "He lied to you. Every one of you. Can you imagine what people will say? These things can't be kept a secret forever… the truth always comes out. And Jack will have made fools of you all.

The Huntingtons… the Bellfields… do you think they'll ever welcome you in their social circles again? He could have cost you everything… Vivian," she reached her hands out in appeal. "None of it was real. He lied to you…it was all just lies. He chose her," she curled her lip toward Libby, "because she could produce a child and then just disappear. She has no past, no history, no family."

I looked at their faces as Elaine finally spent herself. They looked from her face to mine. And I watched… felt the energy in the room as it shifted. Without seeming to move at all, my parents, my brothers, my beautiful, strong sister formed a protective wall around my Libby. I stood at the center and together we watched as Elaine's indignation slowly slipped away. From the corner of my eye, I saw Spencer come slowly to stand alongside us.

"That's where you're wrong," I answered her back.

"And there's nothing you, or anyone can say, that changes how we feel" Mom added. "Libby's our daughter and we love her. We knew everything from the start," she said smoothly. "And we gave our complete support," Dad finished for her.

"She's made Jack happier than I've ever seen him in his entire life," Ben spoke softly as Blake and Reid stood taller and nodded in agreement.

"She's my best friend," India said, her voice edged with warning. "And my sister. And a better woman than you'll ever be…"

I took Libby's hand in mine and pulled her in close. "Libby belongs to us… all of us. We are her family, and we are her future… And she's mine," I finished, looking down at her.

I glanced around, the question in my eyes. I didn't even have to speak it. Everyone nodded in silent agreement. We knew each other so fucking well. And when we were united, strong… we were like one mind… I turned back to Elaine.

"You don't need to resort to blackmail," I said dismissively. "Tell whoever will listen to you. We have nothing to hide… And you have far less power than you imagine.

Take the company too. Although you may not find your board as easy to control as you think." I felt the family close in a little tighter, as Elaine stood alone.

"You'll find it takes cooperation… trust... to run an empire…

And to keep it."