Chapter 18: The Gala Trap

Four hours later, the grand ballroom of the Pierre Hotel was a blinding sea of flashing cameras and glittering chandeliers. The annual Michelin-star gala was the culinary event of the season, a highly publicized night where fortunes were made and careers were shattered.

Chapter 19: Owning the Truth

The ballroom was a tempest of blinding white light and deafening noise. Flashbulbs erupted in a relentless, staccato rhythm, capturing the exact moment the pristine facade of Elise Thorne and Simon Croft shattered into a million irredeemable pieces.

Reporters shouted

Chapter 20: The Sweetest Course

The kitchen of *L’Aura* was immaculate, the stainless steel countertops gleaming under the dim, ambient hum of the overhead track lighting. The dinner service had ended three hours ago, the last of the line cooks had scrubbed the stations, and the heavy oak doors of