Roma

yes, and he kept his broad shoulders squarely blocking the elevator doors. To the security detail of the Fol

he button and lazily called the front desk to veri

slowed their pace. They whispered to each other, their eyes

nd kept my spine completely rigid. I refused to look down, re

ed from the adjacent elevator bank. The whisperin

tailored, bone-white Chanel suit. She moved with the flu

body, lingering deliberately on the frayed cuffs and pilled fabric of my old

r voice was loud enough for the lingering audience to hear, drippi

stared straight into her eyes and demanded she unlock

played the victim perfectly, claiming she was just following the

voice to a lethal whisper, warning her not to p

e returned, wider this time. She loudly declared that the Foley Group maintained rigorous

d feel their disgust radiating toward me. To them, I was j

raised my voice, demanding to know if she was h

vading my personal space. She leaned in, bringing her l

hit the deepest, rawest nerve I had, reminding me that if Axel actually c

ed in my ears. I raised my right hand, fully

shot out. She clamped her fingers around m

ance. I stumbled backward, my ankles twisting in my cheap sh

ly arched her back, drawing my attention to the collar of her suit.

knew that brooch. I had pointed it out to Axel in an auction catalog

and gently stroked the sapphire, loudly sighing that Axel had just gi

hed out of my lungs. I was begging for fifty thousand dollars to save a life, an

tisfied. She turned her back to me and casually

on each side, their thick fingers digging painfully into my

soles of my heels scraping against the pristin

the heavy steel doors of the frei

ght drop. Then I stomped my heel down with all my strength, dr

olently twisted my torso, ripping my r

ard, abandoning all grace, sprinting

ed facade breaking as she

g gap of the freight doors. I slammed my fist against

ammed shut, cuttin

to see h