Chapter 11

The main boardroom of the Vance Luxury Syndicate was designed to intimidate. Paneled in dark, rich mahogany and dominated by a forty-foot table carved from a single slab of black marble, it was a room where empires were bought, sold, and dismantled.

When Clara pushed through the double

Chapter 12

The Grand Palais in Paris was a chaotic, glittering epicenter of high fashion. Outside the massive glass-domed venue, hundreds of paparazzi clamored against velvet ropes, their camera flashes exploding like lightning in the crisp evening air.

Tonight was the highly anticipated Damien S

Chapter 13

The Grand Palais had fractured into total bedlam. The pristine, highly curated atmosphere of Paris Fashion Week dissolved into a riot of flashing cameras, shouting critics, and a stampede of luxury buyers furiously texting on their phones.

Above the obsidian runway, the sixty-foot scre