"Let them slaughter the ghost," Damian said coldly, his eyes locking onto hers with terrifying intensity. "Because when the real Clara Vance rises from the ashes at Julian’s grand opening, the shockwave will tear his empire apart."

Clara stared at the phone resting on the marble counter. The screen

The dining room of *L'Étoile* was a masterclass in pretentious design. Dripping with crystal chandeliers and draped in dark velvet, Julian’s new flagship restaurant was designed to scream luxury. But its centerpiece was the expansive, glass-walled open kitchen, built so the wealthy elite could watch

The grand dining room of *L'Étoile*, designed to hold two hundred of the city’s wealthiest patrons, was entirely empty save for five people.

The silence was deafening, broken only by the faint, frantic clatter of line cooks furiously scrubbing down their stations behind the glass wall, desperate t