The new corporate headquarters of Aura House occupied the entire top floor of a glass-and-steel high-rise in Midtown Manhattan. It was everything Thorne Empire was not. Where Julian had insisted on heavy black marble, suffocating velvet curtains, and gaudy gold fixtures designed to scream wealth, Cl

The rain came down in sheets, hammering against the reinforced glass of Clara’s penthouse apartment. It was a torrential, unforgiving New York storm, the kind that turned the streets into black rivers and washed the city clean of its grime.

Inside, Clara’s sanctuary was warm, silent, and impenetra

The executive suite of Thorne Empire looked like the site of a natural disaster.

Papers were scattered across the floor like fallen leaves. The massive digital stock ticker mounted on the wall flashed a relentless, angry red, the numbers plummeting lower with every passing second. The phones on th