ora

sanctuary perched high above the city, of

a flute of champagne. Jordan was a force of nature in a sharp

't drink. "It's not time

I wasn't just returning; I was making an entrance that woul

s, miraculously returned after three years presumed dead? Oh, this

ress releases were drafted, exclusive interviews were offered and then s

rents and me. In it, I was a teenager, smiling, with the silver wolf-cha

e on her face, "'The Lost Heir: Aurora Montgom

ago," I added, my voice cold. "A tragic accident that c

This wasn't just an announcement. It was a declara

e P

ad on my shoulder, looking pale and fragile. I was peeling an apple for her, the blade of the small knife moving i

is face grim. He was holding his tablet l

at the interruption clea

face. Not the timid, washed-out woman I had just rejected,

ntgomery, Alive and Retu

n, Montgomery Enterprises? One of the olde

nobody, an inconvenient contractual ob

wide with what looked like shock, but I saw a flicker of something else i

dn't been about some minor land deal. It had been about uniting the Sterling and Montg

nothing. I thoug

my reality had jus

l Montgo

ancial district's sunlight into cold light;Behind the blinds on the top floor that ar

young Omega assistant perched on my lap, when my secr

need to

of being interrupted pricked like a thorn, burrowing into the thoughts I had been immersed in, my brow instantly knitting tight. B

ut the background was the white walls of a hospital and the flickering monitors beside her. My laugh-the sneer I had been about to let out at some silly post-got lodged deep in my throat, choking

ro

iv

against the windows of my car, the detonator cold and heavy in my hand. I remembered the satisfying flash

, primal rage, I swept everything off my massive oak desk. Papers, awards, a cryst

thought I had buried at se

as a cold, calculating murderousness. I

ora

fell. My phone was buzzing incessantly on the table beside me. The hash

t Montgomery Enterprises were panicking. The world I

e flute, the bubbles da

low, delib

cold smile playing on my