They couldn't stop staring at me, and I hated that I loved it.
The gala continued around us like nothing had happened, like Ethan hadn't just been dragged out by security while Layla screamed obscenities that would make a sailor blush. But everything had changed. The air felt different. Charged. Electric. People who'd crossed the street to avoid me last week were now angling for my attention, their champagne flutes raised like peace offerings.
I stood near the bar, Liam's grandmother's necklace cold against my collarbone, and watched the room reshape itself around the explosion I'd just detonated.
"Violet Carter." A woman I vaguely recognized from some charity board appeared at my elbow, her smile sharp as broken glass. "That was quite the spectacle."
My fingers tightened around my cha
