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

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