Chapter 2

Dulce plunged through the revolving doors of the Grand Regency and stumbled barefoot out onto the flooding pavement of Fifth Avenue.

The downpour was merciless, cold sheets of water instantly soaking her torn dress and plastering her dark hair to her face. She wiped the rain from her eyes, but the tears kept coming, burning against her raw cheeks.

Her old iPhone vibrated violently inside the small clutch she had managed to snatch off the suite floor.

The cracked screen lit up with one name: Kai.

Dulce pressed the call button with shaking fingers, lifting the receiver to her ear as she leaned against a freezing concrete pillar.

"Kai! Where are you? Something terrible happened at the hotel... Kai, please pick up!"

There was no warm, reassuring voice on the other end.

The line crackled with the howling roar of high-altitude wind, punctuated by ragged, agonizing gasps and the distant sound of heavy thuds against metal.

"Dulce... don't... don't go to the hotel..." Kai's voice was barely a rasp, trembling with sheer exhaustion and pain. "Run... get out of New York..."

Her stomach dropped into a bottomless void.

"Kai? What are you talking about? What's happening?"

"I'm... on the roof of the Copeland Building," he wheezed, his voice breaking as if every word cost him blood. "Listen to me, Dulce... whatever you do... never trust... Justice..."

A sickening crunch of metal echoed through the speaker, followed by a sharp gasp and the dead, droning tone of a disconnected call.

"Kai! Kai!" she screamed into the phone.

Panic overtook the physical pain tearing through her body. She sprinted toward the curb, her bare soles slapping against the flooded pavement.

Her right foot came down on the jagged edge of an iron drainage grate. Pain sliced through her sole, throwing her off balance. Dulce crashed down hard onto the filthy, flooded asphalt. Her knee split open, blood mixing with the dirty street water, but she scrambled back up on all fours, waving her arms wildly at an approaching yellow cab.

The taxi skidded to a halt, splashing muddy water across her bare shins.

"Copeland Architecture Building! Mid-town! Hurry, please, I'll pay double!" she sobbed as she threw herself into the backseat.

The driver glanced back at her ripped clothes and bloody legs, his eyes widening, but he slammed his foot on the gas without asking questions.

Ten minutes later, the cab screeched to a halt in front of the thirty-story glass tower bearing the Copeland name.

The plaza below was already in chaos. Flashing red and blue lights cut through the rain, casting an eerie, bloody glow over the wet marble pavement. Security guards in black raincoats were screaming into walkie-talkies, pushing back a small crowd of horrified onlookers.

Dulce shoved the door open and hit the wet ground running.

"Ma'am, stay back! Police line!" an officer shouted, reaching for her shoulder.

Dulce ducked under his arm, her eyes fixed on the sky.

High above, at the edge of the thirtieth-floor observation deck, a streak of jagged lightning split the pitch-black clouds.

For a single, horrific second, a slender silhouette in a dark coat tumbled over the railing, plummeting downward like a bird with broken wings.

His wavy, ash-brown hair whipped violently in the gale. The lightning cast his soft, refined features into stark relief.

It was Kai.

Her throat clamped shut. No sound came out of her mouth, only a dry, rattling gasp of pure horror.

A deafening, wet impact echoed across the wide plaza as his body slammed onto the edge of the raised marble fountain.

A fountain of dark water and bright crimson blood sprayed across the stone.

"Kai!"

Dulce tore past the perimeter tape, ignoring the hands grabbing at her arms, and threw herself onto the freezing marble beside him.

His limbs were twisted at unnatural angles, his chest caved in beneath his soaked woolen coat. Dark blood welled steadily from the base of his skull, pooling around his pale cheek. His light-hazel eyes stared blankly up at the weeping sky.

"No, no, no... Kai, look at me!"

Dulce fell to her knees in the blood, pressing both hands against his chest, trying uselessly to push the life back into him. Her tears splashed down onto his cooling face.

"Wake up! Kai, it's Dulce! We're supposed to take our engagement photos in Central Park next month! You promised me!"

His bloody fingers twitched faintly.

His lips parted, dark bubbles of blood frothing at the corner of his mouth as he struggled to form a syllable. His hand lifted an inch from the stone, as if trying to reach for her wet cheek, before dropping limp onto the red-stained marble.

The sirens of an approaching ambulance wailed through the night, but she knew it was already too late.

Two EMTs pulled her back by force, their gloved hands slipping on her bloody arms.

Through her blurred vision, Dulce looked past the medical crew and saw three men in immaculate charcoal suits stepping back into the revolving doors of the Copeland Building, disappearing into the private elevator bank.

Above the lobby entrance, a colossal digital billboard flashed the latest Wall Street breaking news:

Justice Enterprise Completes Hostile Takeover of Vanguard Architectural Group.

Kai's dying words crashed through her skull like a hammer.

Never trust Justice.

A luxury black town car skidded to a halt at the curb, its doors flying open before the engine even cut off.

A middle-aged woman wrapped in an expensive mink coat stumbled out into the rain, flanked by two private bodyguards.

It was Martha Copeland, Kai's mother.

The glare of smartphone flashes and camera lenses flared continuously behind the police barricades.

Martha Copeland stormed across the plaza, her designer leather heels clicking furiously against the wet stone. Her face, usually composed in the chilly elegance of old money, was twisted into a mask of pure grief and venomous fury.