Chapter 1 The Instagram Post

The silence in the Vanderbilt Manor wasn't just an absence of sound; it was a physical weight, heavy and suffocating, like a wool blanket soaked in ice water draped over Seraphina's shoulders.

She sat at the end of the mahogany dining table that was long enough to seat twenty people. Tonight, it seated one.

The grandfather clock in the foyer chimed. Eleven times. The reverberations moved through the floorboards, traveling up the legs of her chair and settling in the hollow pit of her stomach.

In front of her, the Beef Wellington sat on a bone-china plate. It was a lie, just like everything else in this house. She hadn't cooked it from scratch-her damaged wrist wouldn't allow for the heavy rolling of pastry or the fine mincing of mushrooms anymore. She had ordered the components from a high-end caterer and spent an agonizing hour assembling them, her right hand trembling as she applied the egg wash, biting her lip against the spasms shooting up her arm. Now, the pastry had grown cold and soggy. The truffle reduction had congealed into an unappetizing, dark film. It looked less like a celebration of their third anniversary and more like an autopsy of a failed effort.

Her phone buzzed against the polished wood. The vibration was startlingly loud in the mausoleum-quiet room.

Seraphina stared at the screen. A notification from Instagram.

*Tiffany_S just posted a photo.*

Her heart performed a strange, syncopated rhythm-a skip, a flutter, a hard thud against her ribs. She knew she shouldn't look. She knew that unlocking her phone was an act of emotional self-harm. But her thumb moved of its own accord, sliding across the glass.

The app opened. The photo loaded.

It was a low-light shot, intimate and warm, taken at a table in *Le Bernardin*. The candle in the center of the frame cast a soft, romantic glow over two glasses of red wine. But Seraphina didn't look at the wine. She zoomed in on the bottom right corner of the frame.

A man's hand rested on the white tablecloth.

It was a strong hand, with long, tapered fingers. On the wrist sat a Patek Philippe Calatrava with a custom leather strap. She knew the grain of that leather. She knew the weight of that watch face. She had spent six months' worth of her allowance saving for it, presenting it to Harrison two years ago with a shy smile he had barely acknowledged.

She read the caption.

*Thank you for always being my safety net. <3 #blessed #soulmate*

The air left Seraphina's lungs in a rush, as if she'd been punched in the solar plexus. It wasn't a sharp pain. It was a dull, expanding ache that started in her chest and radiated outward to her fingertips.

She minimized the app and opened her text messages. The last message from Harrison, sent at 6:00 PM, stared back at her.

*Meeting running late. Don't wait up. Deal with the Japanese investors is critical.*

A lie. A lazy, effortless lie.

He wasn't closing a deal. He was closing his hand around a wine glass across from a woman who had made it her life's mission to remind Seraphina of her inadequacy.

Nausea rolled over her, acidic and hot.

Seraphina stood up abruptly. The heavy oak chair scraped against the floor with a screech that sounded like a scream. She grabbed the porcelain plate. Her grip was too tight; her knuckles turned white.

She walked into the kitchen. The stainless steel appliances gleamed under the harsh recessed lighting. She didn't bother with the garbage disposal. She walked straight to the trash bin, stepped on the pedal, and scraped the expensive, cold beef into the liner.

*Thud. Splat.*

The sound was final. It was the sound of three years of trying, three years of perfecting her appearance, her manners, her silence, all ending in the trash.

She moved to the sink to rinse the plate. She turned the faucet on full blast. The water was freezing, numbing her skin.

Suddenly, a sharp, electric jolt of pain shot through her right wrist.

Seraphina gasped, dropping the sponge. She grabbed her right wrist with her left hand, squeezing hard, trying to compress the nerves that were misfiring. It was a phantom reminder. A legacy of the "accident" three years ago. The doctors had called it complex regional pain syndrome combined with severe nerve damage. She called it the price of admission.

She massaged the scar tissue that ran along the inside of her wrist, hidden beneath her long sleeve.

*You will never play professionally again,* Dr. Julian St. James had told her, his eyes full of pity she didn't want.

She had given up the violin. She had given up the stage. She had given up the scholarship to Juilliard. All to be the wife Harrison Vanderbilt needed. To be the woman who could stand by his side and help him secure his inheritance.

And he was currently at *Le Bernardin* with Tiffany Sloan.

Seraphina turned off the faucet. The kitchen plunged into silence again. But something inside her had shifted. The despair was evaporating, replaced by a cold, hard clarity. It was a terrifying feeling, like standing on the edge of a cliff and realizing the fall might be the only way down.

She walked out of the kitchen, leaving the lights off. She climbed the grand staircase, her hand trailing along the banister. She passed the massive oil painting in the hallway-their wedding portrait.

In the painting, Harrison looked regal, distant. Seraphina looked small, her smile fragile, her eyes wide with a hope that now seemed pathetic.

She stopped. She looked at her painted self.

"I'm done," she whispered.

The words didn't echo. They were absorbed by the empty house, swallowed whole. But she heard them. And for the first time in three years, she believed them. She turned from the painting and walked toward the master bedroom, each step heavier, more deliberate than the last.