Chapter 4

The following morning, the sunlight streaming through the sheer curtains of the master bedroom felt like an insult.

Seraphina sat at her mirrored vanity, staring at her own reflection. She looked entirely too sharp. Her eyes were clear, her posture impeccable. It wouldn't do.

She clos

Chapter 5

The plush, hand-stitched leather of the Maybach’s backseat felt like a velvet trap. Seraphina sat perfectly still, watching the blurred skyline of Manhattan glide past the tinted windows. Beside her, Arthur was radiating a frantic, barely contained nervous energy, adjusting his silk tie f

Chapter 6

The server room beneath the Vance Private Intelligence safehouse was a fortress of freezing air and humming machinery. Bathed in the stark, blue glow of towering mainframe racks, the room felt completely detached from the opulent, lying world Seraphina had just left behind at the Plaza.