Reborn From Ashes: The Vengeful Heiress

ar the floor-to-ceiling windows. The Manhattan skyline glittered behind them, seventy stories down, but

future,"

The crystal ran

hrough the silk of her gown. His thumb traced the curve of her spine in that proprietary way he

red against her ear. His breath smelled of the Macall

m f

barely

aced with her fingertips a thousand times, the mouth that had promised her forever in this same apartm

mond rotated under her thumb, a nervous habit she'd developed in the three weeks since he'd

rol

ed. "Just the champagn

they'd been together-the tiny spasm that appeared when he was negotiating a deal he knew was sha

she ign

at her elbow with a microphone in his hand. The device squeal

aist. "Go freshen up.

n't n

t quite painful. Insistent. "Take your allergy pill. I'll sen

gh a speech-but then the room tilted. Just slightly. The chandeliers became starbursts

ftly. "Go rest. I

uld remember later, in the hours and years

was laughing too loudly at some banker's joke, past the string quartet playing something by Vivaldi that her mother had loved. She didn't stop to speak to anyone.

neties. Pollock. de Kooning. Rothko. Millions of dollars of pigment and canvas, and she couldn't focus on any of the

e she'd watched Casablanca with Douglas on their third date, his ar

bedroom doo

light cut across th

or her twenty-sixth birthday. The metal was warm from her skin. She could hear music from the b

ed the d

had imported from Macau stood between her and the bed, its lacquered surface reflecting the lamplight in di

augh. High.

le's

arms like an injection of ice water. She took one step forward. Another. Her heels s

pped ar

ed his lap, her back to Karolyn, her Versace gown rucked up to her thighs. Douglas's hands were at he

as white and exposed. "Tell me," she g

15." His voice was thick, unrecognizable. "Your father's margin

's hand

st Christmas-slipped from her fingers and hit the carpet with a sound

oving now, grinding against him, her finger

, found the zipper of her dress. "The team went in at 8:

the dark carpet with a color she knew too well from her fath

e

in call failed. Position liquidat

the crystal ashtray Douglas kept on the nightstand, knocked to the fl

s head s

them-no recognition, no guilt, no humanity. Then the mask slid back into place, the ch

rol

e

, toward the private elevator, the one that required her fingerprint and retinal scan, the one that would take her down to the lobby, to the street, to anywhere but here. Her lungs burned. The vertigo was gone, replaced by a clarity

palm against the scanner. Waited for

een fla

was performed. S

hispered. "

ground for one sickening moment before he threw her forward through a doorway she hadn't seen, hadn't

d never set foot in this apartment, though everything in it

d between her and the door, adjusting his cuffs. His bow tie was still undone. She could smell Krystle's perfu

amatic," Douglas

pare

the Rothko print. "The fire hasn't reached the main house yet. The alarm

Karolyn thought with a detachment that frightened her, exactly as she had in the ballroom twenty minutes ago. Exactly as she had at every lunch, every shop

nd her. The click was very l

name, her father's name, the names of the shell companies Douglas had established in the Caymans six months ago. Sh

with his initials, rescued from his desk after the first board meeting where Douglas had been named COO. "Sign it,

he diamond caught the lamplight, threw prisms against the wall. "

ghed. "That's not a crime, Karolyn. Unfortuna

m his desk. Swiped twice. T

s estate. Recognized the rose garden where her mother walked every morning at six. Recognized the bedro

cked at t

ning. Full, orange

from the inside. She reached for the tablet, but Douglas held it high, out of her reach, and she could still see, could still see the fire reaching the s

as said, "the fire spreads. Sign t

etal was warm from his grip. The nib wa

en, the roo

to a man who had never loved her, daughter to parents who were burning alive sixty miles east, l

and m

touche