The mansion stood like something out of a fantasy novel, towering glass windows, silver-trimmed balconies, and the kind of silence that screams old money. Lena couldn’t stop blinking as she stepped out of the car, her sneakers crunching against the marble-tiled driveway. It was all too perfect, too cold, too… not hers.
Her mom stood beside her, beaming with that kind of glow only love or marrying a millionaire could give you.
“Come on, baby,” she said, looping her arm through Lena’s. “Welcome home.”
Home.
That word felt foreign.
She wasn’t bitter. Not exactly. Her mom deserved happiness after years of scraping by. But this place wasn’t where she belonged—it reeked of wealth, of a life she’d never known. Of people, she wasn’t sure she wanted to meet.
Especially him.
Lena’s heart thud
