Shadows of the Past

The Metropolitan Arts Center ballroom was a vacuum of oxygen, a space engineered to suffocate anyone lacking a pedigree. Elena Vance stood at the epicenter of the crush, her fingers locked into Julian Thorne’s. The contact was a tactical restraint, not a romantic gesture; his grip was a reminder of the contract that bound her to his side. Every pair of eyes in the room—from socialites nursing lukewarm champagne to the creditors circling the carcass of the Vance estate—was fixed on the diamond on her left hand. It was a b

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