CHAPTER 21
ELLE POV
As we walked I could hear perfectly well the receptionist, although I was so distracted by her half the time I hardly registered what she was talking about. I was too alert, my thoughts too noisy.
“This is the executive lounge,” she said, gesturing at a glass-sided room with squishy leather sofas, lacquered coffee tables, and bookshelves filled with books no one had read. “Even clients are brought here while waiting for their meetings. We want to be comfortable and chic.”
I smiled blandly and nodded with an effort.
Inside, my chest constricted. Comfort. Sophistication. All that luxury I was used to, all that I had been denied when my empire was taken from me. They had thrived on my ruins.
I kept on walking, my face devoid of the burden of memory.
We went past the
