The Fallen Ugly Girl: Her Epic Comeback

From the back cover

I used to be the "Princess of Cohen Pharmaceuticals," but now I'm just a girl in a soaked coat trying to hide the rolls of fat that came with the stress of my family's bankruptcy. My fiancé, Kody, was the only thing I had left to hold onto.

I walked into Kody's office looking for a shred of comfort, but he slid a "Termination of Engagement" form across his mahogany desk instead. He didn't just break up with me; he looked at my size sixteen body with pure disgust and told me I was a liability to his corporate image.

Before I could even process the heartbreak, his "secretary" walked in, rubbing her flat stomach and asking about their lunch plans. They had been together for six months-the entire time I was at my father's legal depositions. Kody didn't stop there; he took the keys to the Porsche I bought him, claiming it was a company asset, and drove off with his pregnant mistress, leaving me standing in the gutter.

Then my phone rang-my father had collapsed from heart failure, and the hospital refused to operate without a $200,000 deposit because our insurance was frozen.

I stood in the hospital lobby, bankrupt, betrayed, and watching my father die through a glass window. Kody had stripped me of everything, and the world was laughing at the "fallen princess." I was desperate, humiliated, and out of options. But I still had one thing left: a black obsidian ring given to me twelve years ago by a boy I saved from drowning.

I tracked Christ Collins to a private Hamptons gala, a place where the air smells like old money and dark secrets. He didn't offer me a check; he offered me a sick game.

"Swim ten laps in the outdoor pool," he whispered, his eyes icy blue and predatory as a freezing November storm raged outside. "Five million dollars if you finish. Or you can go back and watch your father die."

I kicked off my heels and walked toward the frigid water.