The Starlight Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art was the crown jewel of the city's social calendar. It was an event where the air smelled of vintage champagne and old money, where fortunes were quietly leveraged over caviar, and where the elite came to remind each other exactly who ruled the wor

The morning after the Starlight Gala, the air in the city felt remarkably crisp, as if the storm of Chloe Sterling’s public humiliation had somehow cleared the smog. Sienna Vance sat in the back of the sleek, black Maybach as it glided smoothly down the ramp into the subterranean VIP parking garage

The executive penthouse of Vanguard Hospitality was a sanctuary of glass, steel, and quiet power. At eleven o'clock at night, the city below stretched out like a glittering grid of diamonds and gold, the chaotic noise of the streets reduced to a distant, muffled hum.

Inside the massive corner offi