Chapter 146

• Victoria’s voice caught in her throat, but she masked it with the practiced poise of a woman who’d spent decades managing boardrooms, headlines, and royal expectations. Still, the emotion in her eyes was unmistakable. Not many people could read Victoria Langston but I had been watching her since I was seven.
• Back then, I used to trail after my mother, Melanie, as she walked the marbled halls of Langston Holdings' executive tower back when Victoria was still just the CEO’s wife, not the powerhouse she had become. We would sit in that corner lounge, sip jasmine tea, and talk about everything women weren’t supposed to say aloud in rooms ruled by men.
• "We weren’t born to serve," Victoria would say, eyes hardened by glass ceilings and velvet cages. "Luxury without liberty is still a prison."