Chapter 15: The World I Built Burned Without Me

We escaped the estate just before sunrise. Luca could barely walk, but he refused to let me carry all the weight. “Don’t treat me like I’m dying,” he murmured. “You look like death warmed over,” I said, forcing a smile. He gave me one of his, the crooked kind. The kind that used to undo me. But nothing felt the same. Because the moment we landed back in New York, the world I’d once ruled— Had already buried me. The headlines weren’t kind. “Heiress Walks Away from...