se Carte

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ted wit

rrace at midnight. I ne

rt thumping in my throat. Back then, I still believed in

d that Liam H

from my face. I stood in my pale blue satin dress-the one Tiffany

I called

, hands in the pockets of his

ame,"

t is it? You so

oward me slowly. "There's s

as he going to propose

hed for

ld postpone the

altered. "

weeks. Your father's company is under

e tied to my name?" I interr

that's not w

what you

me things. About your family.

d. "What d

ion isn't as clean as it

ped. "But he didn't deserve to di

d and lo

denly,

just about p

about b

iffany

y the string quartet. My stepfather's charity gala was the perfect

osture stiff with disbelief. Liam's han

r feel it. L

ough to stea

to steal

fter my mother married her father, Elise had the wor

anym

r name wo

from the rubble w

se Carte

rrace without

I remember storming into the powder room, slamming the d

aw the e

ter, addressed to me in a

ere phot

But unmi

ny an

ite we had once stayed

ees b

photos like they might dissolve int

dn't collap

psed in

e heard i

an Blackw

upposed to

n't on my radar-

who once had dealings with them in the energy sector. My

en I s

t in silence, eyes wide and tear-lined as she stumbled out of the s

something

Fire, not yet lit

've walk

d, I f

se Carte

e up and I collapsed on a bench in the staff corridor. I di

ost eve

gh n

oked

r than I remembered from the press

y," I m

did

eside me, arms re

betrayed," he said

d my fa

he continued. "Let it bury you-o

your advice,"

u need revenge. But

alked away, no

time I wondered who Adr

ent-day E

stood by the floor-to-ceil

el. A life torn at the seams by people I trusted.

d

d the halls of her enemy's empi

ay have ope

one who woul