I stepped out of the sleek black car, the click of my heels on the marble driveway echoing through the warm evening air. For a moment, I paused, gazing up at the grand estate before me—Dante’s world. It was like something out of a movie, with sprawling gardens lit by twinkling fairy lights, and the soft hum of laughter drifting from the terrace. Tonight, I was Rosella Ryder—confident, polished, and completely transformed.
The dress I wore clung to me like liquid silver, perfectly fitted to the new version of me that I was still getting used to. My reflection in the car window stared back, almost unrecognizable from the girl who had once scraped by, fighting to survive in a city that swallowed people whole. Now, I was poised, a walking statement of everything I had worked for. This was it—
