Serena Ashford closed her eyes, letting the hot, stinging tears of humiliation carve paths through the drying wine on her cheeks.
In this moment, the woman who had once been the firstborn heir of the most powerful family in Riverbend—the woman who had been courted by the privileged elite and toasted as a national treasure of beauty—felt like nothing more than a product. A piece of inventory in a warehouse, waiting to be inspected, priced, and eventually consumed.
The impulse to end it all, to simply walk out onto the balcony of the Blue Horizon Club and let the gravity of the city take her, was a screaming siren in the back of her mind. But every time her resolve wavered, she saw the image of Lemon—her small, pale face, her labored breathing, and the way she had clutched that 'Good Stude
