Adrienne pushed the front door open and stepped inside with a smile that came too easily to be fake.
The house greeted her with familiar silence. Even if it was stripped down and renovated, it still felt like home. Tarps draped over furniture like ghostly figures. Fresh paint clung to the air, sharp and clean, barely masking the deeper scent of old wood.
She breathed it in anyway.
She had missed this place.
“Was this all just an excuse to come back here?” Lorenzo asked, glancing around with thinly veiled suspicion.
“What is this place anyway?” Dimitri added, eyeing the high ceilings and sweeping staircases. “Some abandoned castle?”
Adrienne turned toward him, smiling faintly. “This is where I grew up. My father built this house for my mom. She designed everything. The floors. The wal
