Chapter 1: One Night With the Truth
Mara did not answer Dominic right away.
Outside the glass walls, New Orleans glittered like nothing evil had ever happened beneath its lights. Inside the kitchen, the silence between them felt sharp enough to draw blood.
Dominic looked past her to the folded towel beside the sink.
“The knife won’t help you,” he said quietly.
Mara’s hand froze.
His eyes returned to hers. “But I understand why you keep it there.”
That should have made her hate him more. Instead, it made her angrier, because he had seen too much.
“You knew who I was,” she said.
“I knew you weren’t a maid.”
“Then why let me stay?”
Dominic’s jaw tightened. “Because your father wasn’t killed by me.”
Mara laughed once, cold and broken.
“Every file he left pointed to your family.”
“To my family,” Dominic said. “Not to me.”
Before Mara could respond, a soft sound came from the hallway.
A floorboard.
Dominic moved first. Not toward Mara. Toward the lights.
He reached for the switch and killed half the kitchen glow.
At the end of the hallway, Celeste Vale stood in her ivory silk robe, one hand resting against the wall, her diamond ring catching the remaining light.
Her smile was slow.
“Well,” Celeste said. “Isn’t this intimate?”
Mara’s blood went cold.
Dominic did not turn around.
“Go upstairs, Celeste.”
Celeste stepped closer.
“I invite one quiet little maid into my house, and suddenly my husband starts whispering secrets in the kitchen.”
Her eyes slid to Mara.
“You should have stayed invisible.”
Mara said nothing.
Celeste’s smile widened.
“You know, Dominic, Griffin warned me she was dangerous.”
Dominic finally turned.
The name landed between them like a bullet.
Griffin.
Dominic’s older half-brother. The man who had lost the Vale throne when their father chose Dominic instead.
Mara’s father had written Griffin’s name once in his hidden files.
Beside a number.
Beside a date.
Beside the word: betrayal.
Dominic’s voice dropped. “Where is he?”
Celeste tilted her head.
May you like
“Close.”
Then every light in the penthouse went out.
