Introduction

It was supposed to be my ten-year anniversary, a glittering party celebrating a decade I'd devoted to building Ethan's empire.

As I stood under the opulent chandeliers, Chloe, his sister, beamed, raising a toast "to new beginnings"-then pressed divorce papers into my hand.

The celebratory evening shattered, turning into a public nightmare.

While Ethan schmoozed with his Ivy League "ideal," Victoria Vance, I suffered a violent miscarriage right there on the polished ballroom floor.

His family hissed, stepping back as if I carried a plague, and Ethan's only concern was for the "scene."

Later, I found my meager belongings shredded, my grandmother's cherished letter torn, and "GET OUT" scrawled in my own lipstick on the bathroom mirror.

How can a man, who knelt at my grandmother's grave swearing eternal vows and built his fortune on her ancient wisdom, accuse me of being ungrateful?

For ten years, I was the mud from his bayou origins he desperately tried to scrub away, yet the foundation of everything he built.

Now he wanted to erase me completely?

But when his sleek new fiancée arrived with bulldozers, threatening to desecrate my ancestors' precious burial ground, the meek "swamp girl" Elara they thought they'd broken finally snapped.

Clutching my grandmother's secret, powerful seeds, I vowed to reclaim my power, one fiery breath at a time.

They wanted a show? I was just getting started.