The Blake mansion wasn't the same without Zara.
Diana never imagined she'd think those words, let alone feel them so deeply. But as she walked down the grand staircase, her heels echoing in the emptiness, the truth clawed at her pride like a rusty nail.
The chandeliers still glittered.
The staff still bowed.
The antique clock in the east hallway still chimed every hour.
But everything else had unraveled.
Her mother, Claudia, had turned paranoid—snapping at maids, whispering to herself, and chain-smoking on the veranda like it was her only lifeline to sanity. And Ariana? She was a ghost wrapped in lipstick and lies. Her obsession with Blake Bank's boardroom politics had spiraled into desperation. She'd stopped being strategic. Now she was reckless.
It all began the day Zara left.
No—was cast out.
Publicly. Brutally.
Diana had smiled then, satisfied to watch her stepsister lose everything.
She didn't smile anymore.
