Serena adjusted the diamond pin on her collar, her face emotionless as the gates of the Ferrera estate opened before her. Every instinct screamed for her to turn back—but Leon’s words echoed in her mind.
“Prove it.”
The guards stepped aside with a bow. She hadn't stepped foot here in years, but the smell of jasmine and blood was the same.
Lucia Ferrera was waiting inside the grand foyer, as elegant and cold as ever, her black lace dress trailing behind her like a funeral veil.
“I was beginning to think you had no spine left,” Lucia said, sipping from a crystal flute of champagne.
“I came back to protect what’s mine,” Serena replied, chin raised.
“Is that what you tell yourself to sleep at night?” Lucia asked with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “That this isn’t about him?”
Elsew
