The summons came at exactly ten o'clock the next morning.

Clara was sitting in the guest bedroom, calmly folding a cashmere sweater and placing it into a single, sleek leather suitcase. She didn't need to pack much. She just needed the essentials. The rest of her belongings—the designer gowns Juli

The silence in the guest bedroom was absolute, broken only by the sharp, metallic *zip* of Clara Sterling’s leather suitcase.

She stood in the center of the impeccably decorated room, staring at the single piece of luggage that now contained the entirety of her future. A few practical sweaters, a

The sky above the Pacific Coast Highway was the color of bruised iron. Heavy, dark clouds rolled in from the ocean, threatening a torrential downpour that perfectly mirrored the storm raging inside Clara’s chest.

She gripped the leather steering wheel of her Mercedes sedan until her knuckles turne