Mona's POV — The Estate, Five Weeks After Serena's Departure
I had worked for the Devlin household for nineteen years.
I had outlasted three housekeepers, two bodyguards, and one chef who survived precisely sixteen days before Lucian dismissed him for over-seasoning a steak — not rudely, not with raised voice, just with that particular flatness that meant a decision had already been made and the conversation was a formality. I had outlasted a very strange and chaotic period when Richard Devlin had decided that hosting monthly dinners for senators would improve his political insulation. I had carried trays through those evenings and kept my face neutral and forgotten everything I heard, which was the first and most important skill this household had ever asked of me.
I had seen Lucian De
