With my fingertips resting against the icy floor-to-ceiling glass of my sixty-fifth-floor penthouse office, I watched violet twilight engulf the streets below. The Opeline rose beneath my handcrafted Italian loafers, its dark tower descending toward the harbor waters. The immense black tower was an architectural landmark. Every inch of its imported limestone exterior, every hand-cut crystal suspended in the atrium, and every thread of eight-hundred-count Egyptian cotton in its four hundred luxury suites was indisputably mine. StudyChemistry Yet a sleek smartphone vibrated on the broad surface of my black marble desk. The glowing message reminded me that, to my own relatives, I remained the unwanted stray they had thrown into the winter cold ten years earlier.

calculating eyes of a taxidermist. Both sipped vintage Barolo, glancing impatiently at their expensive watches.

Suddenly, the double oak doors at the far end of the room swung open with a muffled, heavy thud.

Eleanor, Harper, and Connor entered unsteadily, shepherded firmly but without a word by Marcus’s guards. Eleanor’s immaculate makeup was running, sweat streaking her expensive foundation. Harper clutched Connor’s arm until her knuckles whitened, her eyes darting frantically around the opulent room like a trapped animal searching for an exit that didn’t exist.

Before Eleanor could even

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