Chapter 8

The summons came at exactly ten o'clock the next morning.

Clara was sitting in the guest bedroom, calmly folding a cashmere sweater and placing it into a single, sleek leather suitcase. She didn't need to pack much. She just needed the essentials. The rest of her belongings—the designer

Chapter 9

The silence in the guest bedroom was absolute, broken only by the sharp, metallic *zip* of Clara Sterling’s leather suitcase.

She stood in the center of the impeccably decorated room, staring at the single piece of luggage that now contained the entirety of her future. A few practical s

Chapter 10

The sky above the Pacific Coast Highway was the color of bruised iron. Heavy, dark clouds rolled in from the ocean, threatening a torrential downpour that perfectly mirrored the storm raging inside Clara’s chest.

She gripped the leather steering wheel of her Mercedes sedan until her kn