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Chapter 69. A contract

Author: jengreyy
last update Last Updated: 2025-05-22 05:27:45

* Alex Hamilton *

The gates of Magnolia Manor loomed like something out of another world, black iron laced with gold trim, swinging open with cold mechanical precision as I approached. The drive up was lined with perfectly manicured hedges and pale white magnolia trees in full bloom, their petals like snow under the setting sun. I'd been here once before, years ago, as a child with my father, but back then it had felt like stepping into a dream.

Now, it felt more like a trap.

I parked beneath the grand columned entrance, where two servants were already waiting, one to take my keys, the other to escort me inside. The front doors opened before I could knock, revealing a vaulted foyer of marble and soft music playing somewhere far off in the house. The kind of silence money buys, the kind where everything feels too clean, too staged to be real.

Then I saw her. Jullie Dankworth.

Lance's wife. Maybe ten years younger than him. Tall, graceful, and dressed like she belonged in a museum paint
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