Fifteen
Max adjusted his tie and climbed the stone stairs stretching between two old columns that led to a set of ominous black doors. The Morris mansion loomed giant as ever with its large stone bricks. Others walked ahead of him and into the great foyer, the family’s annual charity ball already in full swing.
But as ridiculously glamorous as this setting was, something felt off.
Maybe it was just his fidgeting, coupled with the hard sensation nestled in his belly since long before he handed his car over to the valet.
In the foyer, he swept his gaze over the white-marble double staircase and gilded handrails, his thoughts snagging on how someone usually would have spotted him by now and approached to say hello.
“Max.” Diana Morris, the reigning monarch to the Morris fortune, glided o
