Chapter 19 The Grand Gesture

• The silence inside the sprawling penthouse was far louder than the bustling city below. For three days following the disastrous confrontation with her father, Aurelia and Thaddeus existed like ghosts in the four-thousand-square-foot residence. They shared a roof, yet lived in entirely different worlds. They moved through opposite corridors, ate at different hours, and communicated only through brief, cold emails dispatched by their legal assistants.
• Aurelia stood by the glass walls of her bedroom suite, staring down at the concrete expanse of Manhattan. The power was completely back on, the city hummed with relentless energy, but inside her chest, everything felt utterly dead. She had believed that distance would offer protection, that hiding behind the thick walls of her pride would keep her heart intact.
• Instead, it was torturous.