ember walking through the lobby of her building, ignoring the night c

settled deep in her bones, a freezing chill

. The blood was gone. It was as if the nightmare had nev

diamond necklace that still felt like a noose. She collapsed onto the pri

started wi

ning up, kicking off the blankets, her skin slick with sweat. She drifted in an

her, pulling her

shadows that lived there now. She was standing in the study of the Wilcox esta

bered, the lines around his eyes deeper, his shoulders carrying a weight sh

-Authur said, his voice grave. "I've made

she asked, but the scene sh

ontgomery Alston sat behind the massive mahogany desk, a cigar in his

s from Montgomery. He looked defeate

s are agreeable, Authur. The debt will be wiped clean. The Wilco

like a commodity, but she had no voice in this memory. Sh

He looked at Diana, and a single tear tracked down his

rror, Authur Wilcox-a man who had never bowed to any

thur said, his

is at the altar. He looked at her with the same cold indifference he alway

et. It pulled her deeper, into a sec

ntgomery in a private room years before the wedding. The

r. "Twenty years ago, when the Alston Group was under siege by Castellano's hostile takeover,

but he nodded slowly. "You did,

leaning forward. "I saved your family from ruin. An

ou want?" Mon

e day ever comes when I can't protect my daughter, you will. You will

for a long moment. "A

omery said firmly. "You have my

und. Diana was back in the bed, thrashing agains

family to climb the social ladder, as the tabloids claimed. It had been a father's ultimate sacrifice. Authur h

n the walls were closing in on him, and h

ble to breathe. She was living in a gilded cage, wearing diamonds she hated, enduring a

the tears soaking into the pil

colors fading to gray. A darker memory was rising, one

e. The day after the weddi