Mia couldn't stop thinking about Adrian's words.
Someone connected to my family accessed your records.
The sentence had lodged itself in her mind like a splinter, impossible to ignore. She had barely slept. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw Vivian's cold smile, Robert's unreadable stare, Margaret's careful warnings. She saw the black sedan idling across the street, the photograph of herself leaving the mansion, the messages that had arrived like poison in the darkness.
By morning, the questions had multiplied.
Who was watching her?
Why?
And most importantly—
Why had they been interested in her before she ever met Adrian?
The timing was the thing that haunted her most. The messages, the surveillance, the background checks—they all pointed to a plan that had been set in motion
