The adrenaline of Julian's public humiliation carried the Vance Couture team for exactly three days. For seventy-two hours, the studio was a symphony of creativity. Sienna sketched relentlessly, her charcoal flying across the heavy textured paper, bringing the avant-garde silhouettes in her mind to

The air in Milan tasted different—heavier, older, and laced with the faint, metallic tang of industrial fabric dyes. Sienna Vance stood before the imposing wrought-iron gates of *Tessitura Moretti*, the oldest and most prestigious silk mill in Northern Italy. The sprawling brick complex had been tur

The rain in Paris was relentless, drumming a steady, chaotic rhythm against the massive skylights of the Vance Couture studio. It was 1:00 AM. The rest of the atelier had gone home hours ago, leaving the sprawling, industrial-chic space bathed in the warm, low glow of drafting lamps.

Sienna stood