The morning after the scandal broke, Manhattan pulsed with gossip. Every screen, every feed, every whisper carried Ethan Devereux’s name spoken with both awe and suspicion.

But inside the Devereux penthouse, silence reigned.

Aria stood by the window, watching the city from her glass fortress, the skyline shimmering like a fragile truth under sunlight. She could still hear Ethan’s words from the night before: The only thing I hate more than betrayal is being underestimated.

A tremor rippled ...