Alice's POV
I stood in front of the building not as Edward’s wife, not as someone seeking entry, but as the rightful heir to everything they thought I had no right to claim, and this time, I didn’t ask for permission.
The marble exterior of Monroe Headquarters hadn’t changed, but the air around it had thicker, sharper, charged like the hush before a thunderstorm and I felt it settle against my skin like armor that had been waiting too long to be worn.
I didn’t flinch when the receptionist greeted me with “Mrs. Aguas.”
I didn’t answer it.
I walked past her like the title had never belonged to me.
Because it didn’t anymore.
That name was built on betrayal and silence, on a marriage that bled in private and smiled in public, and I had carried it long enough to know that no crown forged
