Chapter 2

The next morning, her face was on the cover of the "National Insider."

The headline screamed: "WAR HERO'S SECRET LOVE: 'He Promised Me a New Life,' Says Pregnant Mistress."

The woman' s name was Tiffany. The article painted her as a tragic figure, a Las Vegas cocktail waitress swept off her feet by a decorated officer. She told them he was going to divorce his "cold, barren wife."

They printed a photo of her, weeping, holding a gold watch.

"He gave me this," she was quoted. "He said it was a promise."

I recognized the watch. It was custom-made, a gift to my father from his unit after a successful operation in the Middle East. It had his initials and the Special Forces insignia engraved on the back. Seeing it in her hands made me feel sick.

The media assault was relentless. She was on cable news that night, dabbing her eyes with a tissue, her voice breaking as she talked about their plans, their future, the son he would never meet.

Our phone rang constantly. Reporters camped outside our gate.

Helen stayed in her room. She wouldn't eat. She just sat by the window, staring at the manicured lawn my father had loved so much. The lie was eating her alive.

"Chloe, we can't let them do this to him," she whispered one evening, her voice thin as paper.

"We won't," I promised.

I called our family lawyer. He was a good man, but he was shaken.

"Chloe, this is a PR nightmare. She wants a piece of the estate, the life insurance. A big piece. Maybe we should consider a settlement. Make it go away quietly."

"No," I said. My voice was hard. "We are not paying her a dime."

"Then prepare for a fight," he warned. "She has a story. And she has that watch."

The watch was the problem. It was the one piece of "proof" that felt real, the one thing I couldn't explain. Why would my father give his most prized possession to a woman he didn't know? It made no sense.

But Tiffany wasn't just telling a story. She was building a case, brick by painful brick. And someone was helping her. This wasn't just a grieving mistress. This was an attack.