From Cast-off To The City's Queen

he saved for celebrations. She wore the dress he had bought her in Paris, the silk that mat

had looked at her in Paris. The way he had looked at her before Had

his desk, staring at a blank search bar on his co

rest on his shoulders. The muscles beneath her fingers were knotted, tense. "You'

itely, the way one might shake off an insec

anding, never needy, never the woman who had left him for Paris and returned only when that dream h

lor of walls, the color of nothing she wanted to see. "Say it, Keely. Ever since Hadley le

atural to feel unsettled. But Blair, she's gone. She's nothing. Some man pick

nd like breaking glass. "You t

being the second choice even when she was the first. "You check your phone constantly. You ask Alex about h

ween them, and she saw his reflection in the glass-the fa

as my wife. I have a responsibility

"By trying to destroy any chance she has of building a life? That's not concern, Blair. Th

at the window, looking out at the city that had made him r

, not a question. "You tried to

ng us. Protecti

this myself? That I needed you to fight my battles for me with some trashy gossip column?" He picked up his jacket from the chair, slung it over his shoul

past her t

she asked, hating the d

ut

la

, if he were capable of such an emotion. "I don't know what I feel righ

office, surrounded by the trophies of his suc

parently acquired the power to silence newspapers. She had Blair's name, his apa

never felt

Design, the man who had been pursuing her for months with offers of collaboration, of partnership, of mutu

felt less

d pleasure. "It's Keely. I think it's time we talked about that project

eded: a plan, an ally, a way to strike back at the woman who had

gain. She would use every connection, every favor, every weapon at her disposal to e

eflection in the elevator doors showing a woman who had learned to take wha

screen, still glowing with the search bar, the name