ed me instantly. "Mrs. Costas!

ark it

he Bentley's engine purred as I swung into a spot near the service entrance, the tires crunching over polished concrete. I killed the igniti

nd let the night blur into numbness. Instead, I stepped out into the cool evening air, the city lights of Los Angeles

e-picked every piece of art, agonized over the exact shade of white for the walls beca

millions of lives moving forward while mine fractured. My stomach lurched with every floor. Forty. Sixty. Eighty. I pres

once meant everything. The plush carpet swallowed my footsteps. Recessed lighting cast everything in a soft

ng like a stage under spotlights. As if they wanted

ere th

y Zayden-was fucking my sister on it with a desperate, animal rhythm I hadn't seen from him in years. Scarlett's back arched, her tousled blonde hair spilling across the woo

ouldn't breathe. C

. Our eyes locked. She smiled-

hitch, not even a little. "Wa

ed with a silent, total crack. The

d with pleasure, before he finally registered me standing there. When he did look at me, there was nothin

out,

was all I was wort

ide open. The sound was ugly

slipped off the table with fluid grace and reached for my Versace robe-the one I'd left here months ago-

. "You're just the woman who signs the charity checks and plays

they were being ripped from my soul. "I've l

dea of being a Costas. You love the house, the cars, the lifesty

e staining her lips. "It's nothing personal, Sister. But you're exhausting. All that performing. All that... trying." She

lapsing. The table I had chosen. The art I had hung. Th

Two large men materialized from the shadows of the hallway almost instantl

Cos

ostas out. She

a sob. Mascara, snot, desperation-

ung the moon now couldn't spare me a glance. "You were a project, Erina. A pretty, broken girl from a sad li

is before. I thrashed, screaming his name. It echoed off the marble walls I ha

om, Scarlett trailing behind him like a satisfied shadow. "You were bro

na stripped away in real time. The doors closed on Scarlett blowing me a mocking kiss through the narrowing gap. The girl I had rai

ns of a ruined woman. Mascara rivers down my cheeks. Lipstick smeared. Hair wild. Sain