Chapter 1 1

The champagne flute in Daphne Flynn's hand was the only cold thing in the room. The ballroom of the Pierre Hotel was suffocating, a humid trap of expensive perfume, body heat, and the heavy, cloying scent of white lilies that felt like a funeral.

She stood in the periphery, near a velvet curtain that felt like dust against her bare shoulder. Her knuckles were white where they gripped the crystal stem of her glass, a fragile anchor in a swelling tide of anxiety.

She forced herself to breathe. In. Out.

Every intake of air felt like swallowing wool.

Across the room, the crowd parted. It was a sea of black tuxedos and shimmering gowns, a collective organism of New York's elite that moved with a singular, hungry consciousness.

Campbell Brock stepped onto the center stage.

He tapped the microphone. The sharp feedback screech sliced through the murmuring crowd, silencing the gossip instantly.

Daphne's stomach twisted. A physical knot, tight and hard, formed just below her ribs.

Campbell smiled. It was the smile that had charmed her for four years, the smile that had promised her a future, the smile that was currently scanning the room with the precision of a shark scenting blood.

His eyes grazed over the corner where Daphne stood.

He didn't stop. He looked right through her, as if she were nothing more than a piece of the hotel's beige wallpaper. A ghost at a feast held in her own honor, only she didn't know it was her wake.

"Thank you all for coming," Campbell said, his voice smooth, practiced. "Tonight marks a historic moment for Brock Enterprises."

Daphne took a sip of champagne. It tasted like acid.

"We are thrilled to announce the successful merger with Rose Corp," Campbell continued. He paused for dramatic effect, turning slightly to his left. "But business is only half the story tonight."

He extended a hand.

"Kandice, darling, please join me."

Daphne stopped breathing. Her lungs simply refused to expand.

Kandice Rose glided up the stairs to the stage. She was wearing white.

Not just white. It was a gown of silk and lace that looked undeniably, terrifyingly bridal.

She took Campbell's hand. She feigned surprise, pressing her free hand to her chest, but her eyes were bright and hard, gleaming with a victory Daphne was just beginning to understand.

Daphne felt the blood drain from her face. Her extremities went numb, starting at her fingertips and racing up her arms.

"This merger isn't just about assets," Campbell said, his voice dropping to that intimate register he used to use with Daphne when they were alone in the dark. "It's about family."

He lifted Kandice's hand to his lips.

"And to seal this union, I am proud to announce my engagement to Kandice Rose."

The room erupted.

Applause. Cheers. The sound of hundreds of hands clapping together in a rhythm that felt like a physical assault on Daphne's ears.

Crash.

The sound of shattering crystal cut through the applause near the back of the room.

Daphne looked down. Her hand was empty, trembling in the air where the glass had been.

The champagne flute lay in shards at her feet, sparkling dangerous diamonds on the plush carpet. Champagne soaked into the hem of her silver dress.

The applause near her faltered. Heads turned.

Mrs. Van Der Woodsen, a woman who had once complimented Daphne's posture at the ballet, looked at her with a mixture of pity and malicious amusement.

"Oh dear," someone whispered. "The foster girl."

"Did she not know?" another voice murmured, too loud.

Daphne looked up at the stage.

Kandice was looking directly at her.

It was a micro-expression. It lasted less than a second. A smirk. A tiny, victorious quirk of the lips that said, I won.

Then Kandice buried her face in Campbell's shoulder, playing the shy fiancée.

Reporters, sensing the shift in the room's energy, turned their heads. They smelled blood.

Cameras swiveled toward the back corner.

Flash.

A blinding white light exploded in Daphne's vision.

She stepped back, her heel crunching down on a piece of jagged glass. She didn't feel the cut. She only felt the heat of the flashbulbs burning her retinas.

Flash. Flash. Flash.

"Daphne! Look here!"

"Daphne, give us a reaction!"

Campbell finally looked at her.

His expression was cold. There was no apology in his eyes. Only a warning. His jaw tightened, a subtle flex of muscle.

He mouthed three words.

Don't. Make. A. Scene.

A reporter with a microphone shoved past a waiter, thrusting the device into Daphne's face.

"Ms. Flynn, did you know about the engagement?"

Daphne opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Her throat had closed up completely.

"Is it true you're being cut from the family trust now that the real daughter is back?" another reporter shouted.

The walls were closing in. The heat was unbearable.

Daphne turned.

She didn't run. Ballerinas didn't run. She walked, spine rigid, head high, pushing through the crowd of bodies that felt like solid stone.

"Excuse me," she whispered, though no one moved.

She shoved past a waiter, knocking a tray of hors d'oeuvres. She didn't look back.

She burst through the heavy double doors of the service exit, stumbling into the cool, dark alleyway behind the hotel.

The air hit her wet skin like a slap.

It had started to rain. A cold, miserable New York drizzle that soaked her expensive gown instantly.

She kept walking. She couldn't stop. If she stopped, she would scream, and if she screamed, she would never stop screaming.

She stumbled out onto 5th Avenue.

She raised a hand to hail a cab. A yellow taxi slowed down, the driver looking at her-a soaking wet woman in a ruined evening gown standing alone on a corner.

He saw the desperation in her eyes. He hit the gas and sped away.

Daphne let her hand drop.

She started walking south. She didn't know where she was going. She just needed darkness. She needed a place where the lights weren't so bright and the people weren't so perfect.

Thirty minutes later, her feet bleeding inside her heels, she ducked into a dive bar called 'The Rusty Knot'.

It smelled of stale beer and sawdust. It was perfect.

She sat at a sticky table in the back corner.

"Tequila," she told the waitress. "Three shots. Line them up."

She drank the first one. It burned all the way down, searing the knot in her stomach.

She drank the second one. The edges of her vision began to blur.

She reached for the third.

A shadow fell over her table.

A hand, large and manicured, covered the top of the shot glass before she could lift it.

The scent hit her before she looked up. Sandalwood. Expensive scotch. A hint of rain.

It was a scent she knew.

She looked up, blinking against the dim light.

A man stood there. He was wearing a tuxedo, the bowtie undone and hanging loose around his neck. His dark hair was wet from the rain.

He looked down at her with eyes that were unreadable in the darkness.

"That's enough, Daph," he said quietly.