Vanessa’s POV

Vanessa had always believed that fear was something you could manage if you dressed it well enough. If you sat straight, crossed your legs neatly, kept your face soft and pleasant, fear would stay where it belonged—hidden, contained and invisible to everyone else. She had lived her entire life on that principle, and it had carried her through rooms full of powerful men, through lies told convincingly enough to become truth, through moments that should have broken weaker ...