Vanessa’s POV

Vanessa had never been a patient woman.

Patience was for the powerless. Patience was for women who waited in line, who accepted scraps, who lived in the shadows of men. That wasn’t her. Not anymore.

She had clawed her way up from nothing, cut her teeth on betrayal and broken promises, learned the hard way that if you wanted something in this world, you didn’t wait for it to come to you. You reached out and took it.

And she wasn’t about to let Evelyn Carter take what ...