The penthouse felt different now. The glass walls, once a symbol of Lucian’s transparency, now felt like a target. Beatrice Thorne’s presence had left a layer of frost on everything.
"I can't believe she did it," Lucian muttered, staring at a bottle of scotch he hadn't opened. "She’s freezing the kids' trust funds. If I can't prove their legitimacy to the Council of Five Families, they’ll be legally declared 'outside the line.' They won't even be allowed to use the name Vance-Thorne."
Elara sat at the mahogany desk, her laptop open. She wasn't looking at stock prices. She was looking at archived news from twenty-five years ago.
"Lucian, look at this," she said, turning the screen.
It was a grainy photo of a debutante ball. A young Lucian stood in the background, but the center of the p
