All Chapters of Space Between Hearts: Chapter 1 - Chapter 7

The Vance mansion woke at six. I knew this because I'd spent three years listening to the sounds—staff moving in the corridors, kitchen doors swinging, the distant hum of the espresso machine Silas demanded be running before his feet touched the floor.I was already dressed when Mrs. Chen knocked."Mrs. Vance? Your breakfast tray." The housekeeper's voice held its usual careful neutrality. She'd learned long ago that kindness toward me earned cold looks from Clara and sharper words from Silas."Come in."She paused when she saw me sitting at the vanity, fully dressed at six in the morning. I'd pulled my hair back—none of the soft waves I used to attempt, hoping Silas might notice. My face was bare. I'd stopped wearing makeup for him two years into the marriage, when I realized he never looked at me long enough to see it anyway."I brought your usual." Mrs. Chen set the tray on the side table. Tea and toast. The same thing I'd eaten every morning for three years because it was easy, be

The next six weeks became a blur of motion.I worked through nights, slept in fragments, built a network of people who owed favors or wanted revenge or simply believed in something other than Silas Vance's version of success. My grandfather's contacts became my contacts. Genevieve's skepticism became grudging respect. Elena Meridian became something like a friend—or at least, the closest thing I had to one in a world where friendship was a liability.And slowly, impossibly, the plan came together.---The night of the gala, I almost didn't go.I stood in front of my closet, surrounded by dresses I'd worn to events just like this—events where I'd stand beside Silas, smile for cameras, pretend I belonged, while Clara floated nearby in something more beautiful, more daring, more everything I wasn't.I could feel the old Aurora trying to surface. The one who would have spent hours on her hair and makeup, hoping this time he might look at her differently. The one who would have rehearsed c

Chapter 6The morning after Silas stood on my doorstep, I woke to the smell of coffee and the sound of my phone vibrating itself across the nightstand.I didn't answer it. Not yet.Instead, I lay there, staring at the ceiling, replaying the look on his face. Fear. Real fear. Not the manufactured kind he wore at board meetings or the cold irritation he used on me. Something raw. Something that kept him up all night, judging by the dark circles and the wrinkled shirt.Good.I reached for my phone. Seventeen new messages. Three from Elena. Two from Genevieve. Twelve from numbers I didn't recognize—probably reporters, judging by the voicemail previews.I deleted them all without listening.Then I called Elena."You saw the news?" Her voice was breathless, somewhere between terrified and exhilarated."I saw.""My father wants to throw a press conference. David wants to stay quiet. They're fighting in the kitchen right now, and I'm hiding in the bathroom so no one hears me."I smiled despit