Chapter 4

The transformation felt less like putting on clothes and more like forging armor.

Elena stood before the floor-to-ceiling mirrors in the executive dressing room of Victoria’s penthouse. Gone were the faded, oversized sweaters and the paint-stained denim she had worn like a second skin f

Chapter 5

The smell hit Elena the moment she unlocked the door to the apartment.

It was a suffocating blend of Julian’s overpowering cedarwood cologne and the cloying, synthetic vanilla perfume that Chloe Sterling bathed in. For three years, this cramped, two-bedroom walk-up had been Elena’s sanc

Chapter 6

The executive suite of Vanguard Auctions occupied the entire top floor of a monolithic glass tower in Manhattan’s financial district. For three years, Elena Vance had visited her own headquarters only in secret, slipping through the private underground garage in the dead of night to sign