Chapter 55

If even Sebastian, with his wealth and ruthlessness, couldn’t crack Elodie’s fortress, what hope did Vivienne have? The answer, unfortunately, lay in a name that tasted like rust on her tongue – Win. He’d been a persistent wasp buzzing around her ever since he broke up with her, supposedly under duress from his tyrannical fiancée. She knew what he wanted, and Vivienne, desperate and out of options, was equally prepared to offer a trade. ‘Meet me at The Gilded Pelican,’ she purred into the phone. As the call ended, Vivienne’s eyes drifted back to the tabloid exposé of Elodie. ‘Media can be a double-edged sword, El.’ *** A Los Montical December gnawed at the day, cloaking the seaside city in a damp, bone-chilling mist. Sunshine struggled to pierce the fog, mirroring the bleakness in Dashiell’s heart. But a thread of hope, thin as a spiderweb, clung to his soul: a meeting with Elodie, no more robotic handoffs to her COO. This, he dared to dream, was an invitation, a chink in her ironclad