The city greeted Celine with a rush of noise and color, a tide of life that seemed to push against the silence she carried from Navarro Plaza. The glass doors had closed behind her, sealing off the marble floors and clipped voices of her father’s empire. Ahead stretched cracked sidewalks, traffic horns, and the warm, uneven pulse of people simply trying to live.

She kept walking, each step loosening the invisible chain that had bound her for years. Her heels clicked against the pavement, too ...