Elisabeth Cannon-Scott

❝ [she is all sharp longing and quiet rebellion.]

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Elisabeth Cannon-Scott was born into a world where daughters were trained like racehorses—groomed for presentation, handed off to the highest bidder, expected to perform beautifully and without question. Her childhood was old money and cold houses, summers spent learning French from disinterested tutors, winters filled with charity galas where she was required to smile just enough to be charming, never enough to be foolish. She was good at it, of course. Lizzie was always good at being what was required of her.

When she was twenty-one, she married Jonathan Scott. It was not a love match. It was not even a particularly inspired business transaction. But he was powerful, and she was beautiful, and her family wanted a dynasty rather than a daughter. The first few years were... tolerable. She had money that was finally hers to spend, a name that carried its own weight, an understanding with her husband that neither of them would ask questions they didn’t want answers to. But then came the miscarriages, one after another, each one a fresh failure she could feel in her bones. She was never supposed to be a mother, never wanted to be, but when her first child survived, she loved him. Fiercely. Terribly. The kind of love that made her want to run and never stop. But there was nowhere to run.

So she stayed.

And because she stayed, she built something. Not for him. Not for their marriage. But for herself. Scott & Cannon Luxury Group was supposed to be a vanity project, a way to keep her occupied while Jonathan made real money, but she had never been content to sit pretty. Elisabeth built an empire from scratch, took a single boutique and spun it into a global powerhouse. She became a name in her own right, a force, someone people wanted to impress. There were magazine covers, business profiles, glowing interviews where she smiled and said she was so lucky and so grateful and never once mentioned how often she thought about running.

Now, she is fifty and exhausted and magnificent. She has a husband who collects mistresses like rare watches, three children she loves but does not always understand, and a house that is