The city gleamed beyond the glass, but inside the penthouse, the air was taut, like a violin string pulled too tight. Sierra felt it in her chest, in the silence between her mother’s humming and Damien’s watchful eyes. She moved carefully, like any wrong step might make the whole room collapse.
It wasn’t just paranoia anymore. Vanessa had shifted. She no longer floated around the edges with veiled remarks and knowing smiles now she was steering everything, pulling invisible threads. Sierra could feel them coiled around her wrists and ankles, tugging, dragging, tightening.
And worst of all? Vanessa wore her strings like jewelry, every move measured, every word calculated.
The Announcement
Breakfast began like any other, sunlight spilling through the wide windows, coffee steaming on the
