I never told my mother-in-law that the “poor countryside girl” she tried to pay off to leave her son was actually the daughter of a powerful businessman. She threw a check for $5,000 in my face at the family dinner, laughing, “Take this and disappear. My son needs a wife with connections, not a charity case.”

“My father was doing it for me,” I said, relentless. “Because I asked him to help my husband’s failing company. Because I loved you and wanted your dreams to survive. He doubted you—thought you were using me—but I convinced him you were genuine.”

I moved toward the door, then stopped and turned back.

“Turns out he was right and I was wrong. Congratulations, Victoria. You just cost your son everything.”

The Truth About Elena Vance

My name isn’t Elena Vance. It’s Elena Victoria Blackwood—only child of Jonathan Blackwood, founder and CEO of TexCor Energy, one of the largest privately held oil and gas companies in North America.

I grew up in Houston in a twenty-three-room mansion, went to Swiss boarding schools, summered in the Hamptons and wintered in Aspen. By sixteen I had a trust fund worth more than most people earn in ten lifetimes.

But I also grew up watching my father’s circle treat people like assets. I watched marriages built on prenups and business leverage. I watched my mother—before she died when I was eighteen—endure a loveless marriage to a man who saw her as an elegant accessory to his empire.