en's

ldn't

for intermittent wind noises in the high hedges and mini

refused to r

Sin

his name not only because she stood here now but because of something before she arrived at this h

led. But I'd been raised among the best actors-old money, new tit

hiding s

ust things I co

rk hardwood floors to my study. Most of the house was automated now, but

where to

and I knew. The wall gave a soft click and swung inward, revealing a long corridor of

he drawer marked "SINCLAI

briefly on the metal handl

ly two decades. Legal documents, l

phot

ked i

t eyes and long, dark hair. Not posed like business partn

cribbled a name in ink now

cla

mach d

d it

filed quietly, with no official record in our family vaul

of Celest

: Not

htened aroun

ut this? Why had my fa

to bury a child... to never speak of her existenc

as-if she'd come here to expose it-then everything m

she was alr

rt

e file by sitting back in my

I was a teenager. At the time, I hadn't cared-there were always dozens of

buried it when h

nder... what was

t rev

ne

omething more dang

t, if she made it public,

empire cou

scandal like this? It would turn the board of directors on us, spook our in

t let tha

knew what

il I kn

om, dressed, alert, and more fo

infiltrate my world with

eady drawn

g to watch ever

w, who told her, and what

ht this was her

exactly what it meant t