(Aria's POV)
In three years, I built a life under the only name I kept: Aria. I no longer planned my days around winning a place in the Sterling family.
At the Paris ballroom, I wore a custom Dior gown and spoke to investors who knew my work before they knew my history.
They asked about acquisitions, insurance, and provenance. No one there cared who the Sterling family had chosen.
An hour earlier, my fund had acquired the Valois Collection, a multi-billion-dollar portfolio of Impressionist paintings. It was the largest deal of my career.
Conversations moved between French, English, and German while a quartet played near the terrace.
The Sterling Corporation had needed that acquisition to remain solvent. Its losses were its own. I had stopped correcting them.
Julian stood beside me i
