LOGIN- SIERRAThe lead marshal hadn’t even cleared the back doors yet, but the whole room was already a complete madhouse. Elias was still standing in the second row, his face pale, his fingers practically embedded in the leather folder he was holding tightly. Vivian was right next to him, clutching her fingers around her designer purse, her mouth open in a tight line as the tech desks started whispering loudly.I held up my left hand."Hold on," I said into the microphone.The sound cut through the rising chatter of the ballroom. The reporters who had been half-out of their seats stopped, their heads turning back toward the stage, their fingers freezing over their laptops."Sierra, shut your mouth!" Vivian shrieked, her voice losing every single drop of its high-society polish. She took a step toward the stage riser, her red silk gown swishing violently. "You don't know what you're doing! You’re tanking the entire market value! The shares will be worthless by noon if you keep spouting th
- SIERRAI didn’t change into the emerald gown because I wanted to look pretty. I changed into it because green is the color of cold, hard cash, and I was about to strip every single dollar bill out of the Galbraith estate.The silk fabric clung to my ribs like a second skin, heavy and stiff enough to hide the fact that my lower stomach was still throbbing from giving birth a week ago. The color made my skin glow instead of looking washed out, and the shoulder-baring cut dared anyone to look away. When I stepped out of the green room, I barely noticed the heels anymore. The adrenaline surging through me drowned out the pain."You look like a lethal weapon, babe," Desmond muttered, catching my arm right before I hit the backstage steps. He’d loosened his bow tie slightly, but his eyes were wide, dark, and locked onto the double doors where Marcus’s boys were currently keeping Elias and Vivian pinned in the VIP lounge. "Nigel just gave the green light. The New York terminal is completel
- SIERRAElias Galbraith, my biological father, didn’t just walk over; he practically drifted on a cloud of old-money entitlement and dry-cleaned hubris. Vivian was glued to his elbow after that, her fingers dug into the sleeve of his bespoke tuxedo jacket like she was trying to leave permanent fingerprints. They both looked so smug I could practically smell the victory sweat coming off them from five feet away."Mrs. Zimmerman, modern manners dictate I introduce myself properly before we get down to the brass tacks," Elias said. He extended a hand that looked like it had never lifted anything heavier than a golf club or a fountain pen. "Elias Galbraith. It’s an absolute pleasure to finally see the face behind all that fierce Maison Nova Creative paperwork. You’ve put up a hell of a fight for a local independent firm."I looked down at his open hand, then back up at his face. I didn't take it. I just kept my champagne glass cradled in both palms, letting the silence stretch out until
- SIERRAThe heels I was wearing were a three-thousand-dollar mistake. They looked fantastic, black silk, sharp enough to stab a man through the foot, but after twenty minutes on the marble floor of the Boston Plaza Hotel ballroom, I was ready to commit federal crimes just to sit down.The room was a loud, glittering cage. Crystal lighting rattled to the bass of the ambient house music, and the air smelled of expensive perfume, champagne, and the ozone heat coming off a hundred different camera flashes. Every major tech reporter from New York, every high-society parasite from Beacon Hill, and the entire executive board of the Wellington shipping lanes were packed shoulder-to-shoulder under the high ceilings. They were drinking my liquor, eating my three-ounce caviar tartlets, and waiting to see the Maison Nova Creative agency take a public dive.I took pride in it because I built the agency myself from the ground up through my own hard work, without relying on the Figueroas or the Zi
- SIERRAAdrian was out cold in his crib, his tiny chest rising and falling under the green fleece blanket like a little clockwork engine. He’d finally stopped doing that weird, high-pitched squeak every time he breathed, which meant my heart rate had successfully dropped below ninety for the first time in three days.I was sitting in the oversized glider by the window, my bare feet tucked up under my oversized gray sweatpants. My hair was tied up in a messy knot with a pink plastic claw clip that was currently digging into the back of my skull, but I didn't even have the energy to reach up and fix it. Every muscle in my body felt like it had been filled with wet sand.The door creaked quietly, and Desmond slipped inside. He’d changed into a pair of faded black sweatpants, his massive shoulders catching the yellow glow of the giraffe nightlight in the corner. He didn't say anything. He just walked over on his bare feet, slow and heavy, and dropped right down onto the floorboards next
- SIERRANigel let out a screech that sounded like a cat getting its tail slammed in a screen door. He hit the spacebar so hard I thought the key was going to shoot through the ceiling."Bingo!" he yelled, spinning around in his swiveling chair and nearly knocking over a three-day-old mug of cold sludge. "The bait is down, swallowed, and currently sitting in the old bastard’s stomach. Elias just confirmed. He’s coming."I didn’t look up from the kitchen island where I was currently trying to figure out how the hell to assemble a breast pump while running on exactly forty minutes of terrible sleep. My fingers were clumsy, the little plastic valves were confusing, and my brain felt like it was floating in a bucket of cold dishwater. "He didn't hesitate? Not even a little bit?""Are you kidding?" Nigel scoffed, clicking his tongue and pulling up an encrypted email chain on the center monitor. "The guy practically tripped over his own ego trying to reply. His secretary sent the RSVP with
- SIERRA I woke up to the strong smell of disinfectant and the rhythmic beeping of a monitor. I blinked, the harsh overhead lights of the hospital room stinging my eyes. An IV line was taped to the back of my hand. "Hey, Sleeping Beauty. You nearly gave me a heart attack." Aleena was sitting i
- SIERRA This morning, I was cowering over my desk, typing away on my keyboard, when I completed the compliance filings. My back was stiff, and my eyes were blurring, but I did not stop. The only thing I mostly enjoyed and that never talked back was working. That's the only thing that made me forg
- SIERRA Aleena groaned. "Don't go. Seriously. Tell them you have a migraine." "It's all okay," I said, getting up and adjusting my dress. "I'm used to it." I wrote the order and brought it to the executive kitchen. There was the head chef, Betsy, an elderly woman who had known me since I worked
- SIERRA"Desmond?"My heart beat wildly against my ribs, and I started to jump up in a startle. The room was very dark, but I could see a shadow hanging at the edge of the bed.His only reply was silence. I smelled only of the Scotch and his cold bitterness.There were only the two of us in that ho







