Chapter 1

On the third day of my postpartum recovery, the postpartum nurse was helping me start nursing when my mother-in-law leaned in.

The pain was so sharp I squeezed my eyes shut, and she made a few clucking noises and went back out.

When the baby latched on, she held up her phone and aimed it at me. "Thank heaven. Grandma's precious boy finally gets to eat."

I blocked the shot fast, but the video of me starting to nurse and feeding him still went up on her social feed.

I begged her to delete it, and she looked at me like I'd lost my mind.

"That little bit of flesh on your chest, so precious now, is it? It's my feed. I get to decide whether it comes down."

Ten minutes later, the nurse held up her phone and looked at me, at a loss.

"Ellie, your mother-in-law didn't just post it to her feed."

I looked at the likes and comments climbing under her TikTok video.

I clenched my fist. This time, I'd make her rot behind bars.

1.

"Ellie, maybe try talking to her again. Get her to take it down."

The nurse, Eva Fox, was mortified.

I set my sleeping son back down and, biting through the pain of my incision, made my way out to the living room one slow step at a time.

My mother-in-law was on the couch, her sweaty bare feet propped up on the coffee table.

"Mom, take that post down. Now."

She spat out a sunflower-seed husk and looked at me, put out. "Take down what?"

Seeing my face darken, she dragged up a smile.

"Ellie, aren't you being oversensitive? I only put that up to share the good news, to let everyone know the Lamberts finally have a fine grandson, that the family line will carry on."

I forced my anger down. "You want to share the news, fine. Use a photo of Baby Noah. There's no need to film me on the sly and post it."

She slapped the seeds in her hand down on the coffee table. "Eleanor Fox, what are you getting at? Are you calling me a thief?"

"If you hadn't gone and had him early, before I even got here, I'd have gotten a video of my precious boy coming out of the delivery room too."

She jammed her hands on her hips, fury in her eyes.

"This is my son's house. I'm his mother. I do what I want, and you've got no right to call me a thief."

She tapped the video open. "I'm filming my precious grandson. It's got nothing to do with you."

Seeing the whole screen filled with my bare body, I couldn't stop the anger surging up.

"Mom, open your eyes and look. Who exactly is in that video?"

"Mom, that's my body. That's my privacy. You can't put it out there."

Watching me shake with rage, she couldn't have cared less.

"Your privacy? Eleanor, you're a city girl, so maybe you don't know how it works: a wife belongs to her husband's family. You married my son, so everything about you belongs to us Lamberts."

"I just filmed a little video to let everyone know I've got a grandson. Don't go making a federal case out of it."

"Privacy, whatever that nonsense is. I'm an old woman from the country. I don't understand any of that."

Eva tugged at my sleeve and said softly, "Ellie, Baby Noah's awake. He wants his mom."

In a daze, I thought I could hear my son crying.

I turned and headed for the bedroom.

"Mom, I married Percy Lambert. I wasn't sold to the Lamberts. You'd better take that video down right now, or you're violating my privacy, and I'll pursue it."

She glared at me. "Pursue it? Eleanor, I'm a country woman who came up from the sticks. Don't throw all these fancy words at me. I don't understand them."

"Same as I said. It's my feed, and I've got the right not to delete it."

"You—"

I clenched my fists, ready to keep arguing with her.

Eva caught my arm. "Ellie, the baby comes first. Go see to him."

Back in the bedroom, my son lay asleep on the bed.

Eva urged me quietly, "Ellie, I don't think she'll listen to you. Call Percy now, while not many people have seen it, and have her take it down fast."

"Look at how she is. Going head to head with her won't get you anywhere."

I'd been so angry at my mother-in-law that my head had gone foggy.

I'd actually forgotten that the one person she listened to was her son.

I called my husband. Nothing but a busy signal.

Ten minutes later, I tried again. Still on another call.

I sent a message. It sank like a stone.

Seeing my brow stay knotted, Eva tried to reassure me.

"This time of day, Percy's probably driving home."

"Ellie, don't work yourself up. Give it a little longer. Once he's back, I believe your mother-in-law will delete it."

Watching the likes and comments keep climbing under my mother-in-law's post, phone gripped in my hand, I was frantic.

I wanted nothing more than to snatch her phone away and delete it myself.

Just then, the bedroom door opened.

Percy was home.

Before I could get out a single word of everything I'd been holding in,

my mother-in-law came in right behind him, wailing to the heavens.