CHAPTER 30 A DANCE OF EMOTION

Bianca’s lean, toned body, glistening with sweat, was a testament to the time she’d spent slinking across the pole. Now, as she perched herself on a barstool, she twirled the stem of her martini glass absently, her eyes distant and her thoughts drifting. When would her life as a pole dancer end? When would she stop being an object of desire for others, bound to the stage like a figurine in a clockwork ballerina box? And when would she find her way out of this gilded cage? Memories, like ghosts, haunted her. In a time long past, before the flamboyant costumes and the synthetic shine of the stage, she had been a project manager at a tech giant. Wielding power, influence, and respect, Claire had thrived in that world, her professional life a dazzling contrast to the quiet, domesticated bliss she’d shared with her husband, Blake, and their daughter Emily. But fate, cruel and unforgiving, had dealt a hand she’d never expected. Emily, their precious child, was diagnosed with a devastatin