LILY
I hadn’t even made it to the driveway when I collided with someone. Hard enough that I stumbled back, my hand pressed to my chest.
“Oh! Watch where you’re going!”
The voice was sharp. Cold. Sharp enough to make me flinch. I looked up, and the world shifted in a way I wasn’t ready for.
A tall woman stood before me, perfectly poised, like she had stepped straight out of a magazine. Expensive clothes. Impeccable hair. A face that could have belonged to a queen—except the eyes were sharp enough to cut steel. And those eyes were fixed on me, appraising, judging, dissecting.
I stepped back instinctively. “I—I’m sorry. I didn’t—”
“You should be,” the woman said, voice smooth and icy. “Not that I expected someone like you to have manners. Tell me, how does someone as… lousy as you manag
