Celina’s POV
I KNEW the city would be ruthless, but I wasn’t prepared for how fast it would slice me open.
The moment I stepped outside the glass doors of Thorne Tower, they were waiting. A swarm of flashing cameras, microphones shoved forward like weapons, voices overlapping in a frenzy. Their scent wasn’t wild like wolves, but metallic, charged with the desperation of human ambition.
“Lucien’s secret lover—what’s your name?”
“Is it true you trapped him with a baby?”
“Are you the reason he collapsed?”
“Gold-digger, how much is he paying you to stay?”
The questions were like claws, ripping into every raw place inside me. My chest tightened. I froze. I couldn’t breathe. Their words blurred together until it felt like I was drowning in a sea of voices, their faces morphing into a wall
