She flinched. He knew. Of course he knew. He knew everything.
"The money is a fortress," Elias said gently. "But a fortress is useless if you are afraid to live in it. You must build a wall between your fortress and your future. A wall of paper."
He explained. A legal entity. A corporation. Something that could move, and breathe, and sell, entirely separate from her.
"A brand," Aurora said, the word tasting strange.
"A brand," he agreed. "And a brand needs a name. What will you call this... this armor you are building?"
She looked at her sketches. The "Phoenix Rising" collection. The rage, the ice, the fire. It was all there.
She thought of the woman she had been. The woman she was now. The ghost who had signed the bank ledger.
Aurora M. Vale.
"AVA," she whispered. The letters felt
