The Heiress Who Broke The Cage

“My father called the LeBlanc artistic gift a blessing, a legacy. But for me, with its storm-like intensity that consumed my mother, it felt like a curse. To stabilize my talent, he arranged my marriage to one of three powerful men. I thought I was choosing a partner, until I overheard my presumed fiancé, Cade, with Daisy Miller. He declared I was just "a means to an end," a "broken songbird" whose artistic "secrets" he'd plunder. Daisy, his true partner, would be the real star. The betrayal stung, but far worse was the shock when I found my mother' s unique Amati violin was gone. Cade had given it to Daisy, who gleefully admitted she' d taken it apart for her "art," selling pieces for decorative boxes. Then, at our Legacy Gala, Daisy staged a public accusation, framing me for vandalism, with Cade, Finn, and Silas readily condemning me. My mother' s soul, shattered for parts. My world, reduced to a transaction. The art, the legacy, the very essence of me-all desecrated and dismissed. The grief boiled into a furious, incandescent rage. They thought me unmanageable, but I realized I was merely trapped. With nothing left to lose, I raised my violin and unleashed the storm. Not the expected music, but a powerful, defiant wave of sound that exposed their falsity. I wouldn't be a songbird in their gilded cage. There was only one who might understand, not control: the "unstable" recluse, Ethan Vance. I wrote him, proposing not subservience, but an alliance.”