Chapter 5

At dawn, Sterling Manor’s gates opened to my thumbprint.

My name replaced Julian’s across the deed, accounts, and security registry.

TRANSFER COMPLETE: EVELYN STERLING.

Louis waited inside with the protection agreement I had rewritten. On Sterling land, Moretti guards answered to me; Rex could withdraw protection, never turn it into ownership. He had accepted the price of standing beside me, not above me.

In the drawing room, auction cards stood beside my mother’s paintings. Her sapphire necklace lay beneath a price tag.

At seven fifty-five, I let the buyers through the gates. Their deposits were already in Beatrice’s account; now…