Chapter 2: The Hand I Caught
I caught her wrist.
Not hard.
Not yet.
Just enough to stop her hand in the air.
The room went silent.
Sixty people.
Not one of them breathed.
Vanessa stared at my fingers wrapped around her wrist like I had done something impossible.
Like the floor had reached up and grabbed her.
"Let.
Go." Her voice dropped to a whisper.
"Do you have any idea who my fiancé is?"
"I do," I said.
"I'm looking at him right now."
Dominic Moretti had stepped into the doorway of the main hall.
He hadn't moved.
He was watching — not Vanessa.
Me.
Vanessa wrenched her arm back and laughed, but it came out wrong.
Too sharp.
Too fast.
"Someone remove her."
Two men in dark jackets started toward me.
Then Dominic raised one hand.
They stopped.
"What did you say to her?" he asked Vanessa.
Quietly.
The way very dangerous people speak when they are not yet angry but are getting close.
Vanessa's smile flickered.
"Nothing she didn't deserve."
He looked at me.
Something moved behind his eyes that I couldn't name.
"What's your mother's name?"
The question hit me like cold water.
I hadn't mentioned my mother to anyone in that room.
So how did Vanessa know exactly what to say to break me?
---
What Avery uncovers next — about Vanessa, about Dominic, and about her own father — will leave you speechless.
May you like
Click the link below to read the full story.
👇
