Chapter 1

Valentina's heels clicked against the marble floor of her home—her prison, really—as she returned early from a charity luncheon that had bored her to tears. The house felt different. Too quiet, yet somehow alive with something she couldn't name.

She set her purse down on the kitchen counter. A half-empty wine bottle stood next to two glasses, lipstick on one—coral, not her shade.

Strange. James never drank during the day.

Her wedding ring caught the light as she reached for the bottle. Ten years of marriage summed up in a platinum band that felt heavier by the day.

The sound came then. A laugh—feminine, breathless—from upstairs.

Valentina knew that laugh.

She didn't rush. Didn't stomp up the stairs or scream or throw things. What would be the point? The truth had been whispering to her for months. She just hadn't wanted to hear it.

Her body moved on autopilot, each step measured as she climbed the grand staircase of their Westside mansion. The plush carpet muted her approach.

The bedroom door wasn't even fully closed.

One push, and there they were. Her husband and her sister, tangled in the sheets of the bed Valentina had picked out when they'd first married. James's back was to her, but she could see Melanie's face, eyes closed in pleasure.

Valentina stood there for five seconds. Ten. Neither noticed her.

She backed away, silent as she'd come.

In the walk-in closet, she grabbed a duffel bag—the old leather one she'd had since college, before she'd let James replace everything she owned with designer labels. She stuffed it with jeans, t-shirts, a worn leather jacket she hadn't worn in years. Just the basics. Nothing that reminded her of this life.

Her hands didn't shake as she changed out of her designer dress into jeans and a simple black top. She pulled her dark hair into a ponytail, wiped off her makeup, and slipped her feet into the only pair of boots she still owned.

The moans grew louder. They still hadn't noticed her.

In her home office, she emptied the emergency cash from the safe—five thousand dollars she'd been squirreling away for years without really knowing why. Now she knew.

Her fingers hovered over her phone, wondering if she should leave a note or a text. What would she even say? 'Enjoy my life, I'm done with it'?

Instead, she took out the SIM card, cracked it in half, and left the phone on her desk.

Valentina walked out the front door, got into her car—the only thing she'd insisted on buying herself, a practical sedan that James hated—and drove away.

She didn't look back at the house. Didn't cry. Didn't scream.

Hours later, as city sprawl gave way to open highway, something inside her began to crack. Her knuckles went white on the steering wheel. Her jaw ached from clenching.

The sunset painted the sky in violent reds and oranges as she drove east, away from the coast, away from the life she'd built on shifting sand.

Where was she going? The question floated in her mind, but she already knew the answer.

Riverdale. The nowhere town she'd escaped a decade ago. The place where she'd left behind everything raw and real about herself to become James Porter's perfect wife.

The place where Duke still lived.

Duke. Just thinking his name made her stomach clench. He'd be different now. Hell, she was different now. Ten years could change a person. And the way they'd ended things...

A sign appeared in her headlights: *Riverdale – 120 miles*

Valentina's foot pressed harder on the gas pedal. The engine's growl matched the building storm inside her.

As night fell completely, she turned on the radio. An old rock song filled the car—one she and Duke used to blast on his motorcycle as they tore through back roads, her arms wrapped around his waist, her face pressed between his shoulder blades. The memory hit her like a physical blow.

For the first time since walking in on her husband and sister, tears filled her eyes. Not for James. Not for the marriage that had died long before today.

For the girl she used to be. The one who laughed too loud, who rode on the back of motorcycles with dirt under her nails and freedom in her veins.

The girl who had loved a boy named Duke with everything she had, until fear made her run.

That girl was gone. But as Valentina drove toward the only real home she'd ever known, she wondered if maybe—just maybe—pieces of her remained, buried beneath the ashes of the lie she'd been living.

The "Welcome to Riverdale" sign appeared, faded and tilting slightly to the left. Just like she remembered.

She was back. And she had absolutely no idea what came next.