ears

ference room, the Manhattan skyline a

keup, was beautiful but unnervingly still. Only the occasional flicker of ice in her eyes betrayed the inferno

family's chief legal counsel, a man with a face like a

agreement with Mr. Caspian Kensin

ned the pages, her expression unchangin

be a wife i

o the Kensi

herit

monthly

of "Mrs. Kensington" until Caspian

is to stabilize company shares. Mr. Arthur Kensington believes the ap

t was as if he were d

e offered pen, and signed her name. Th

. He had expected hesitation, perh

back across the table. "Wh

papers. "A simple civil ceremony, and then y

void of warmth or celebration. The groom, predictably, was absent-confined to a life-suppor

Caspian's nephew. As he watched the solitary bride,

nd completely foreign. The agonizing surgeries had perfectly erased

inge of envy gnawing at his chest. *How does a brain-dead vegetable get to marry a woman like

ed onto Julian. For a fleeting second, her serene mask fractured. A raw, unadu

away, looking at her with oblivious, greedy eyes. Her nails

enge.* It took a long, agonizing moment for her to completely suppress the turbulent storm inside her. Onc

iding silently toward the family's Long Island estate. The city

burner phone an

, it'

red, "Elara! You did it? You're

w are the

ng they shouldn't be, Jasper is trying to flambé a croissant, and

t crack in her icy facade. "Take care of them for

, and the ice seal

Lila.

wling grounds of the Kensington Estate. The main house was a magnific

eyes and a polite but rigid post

Estate. Or should I say, Mrs. Kensin

she said, steppin

ith portraits of Kensington ancestors. Her eyes snagged for a second on a paintin

nothing. He led her up a sweepin

said, opening a door. "It i

ent but felt as personal a

Finch stated, his tone a clear warning. "No one is permitted

derst

e floor-to-ceiling window and looked

awled out of hell. She ha

pian was the

tiffness of the skin grafts beneath her makeup. In th

finally cur