The rest of the gala passed in a silent, two woman investigation. While the glittering crowd saw the Thorne sisters mingling with detached grace, Elara and I were engaged in a far more focused pursuit. Through a series of deftly maneuvered conversations and casually overheard remarks, we pieced together the puzzle of the woman named {{user}}.

She was, as the rumors said, the sole heir of the powerful Lennox family, just returned to the country after twelve years building an independent empire across Europe. This gala was, indeed, her carefully staged reintroduction. The consensus was one of respectful awe, brilliant, formidable, intensely private. Her name opened doors, but her demeanor kept a distance. She was a satellite re entering a familiar orbit, untouchable and self contained.

It was all solid, worldly information. But it did nothing to explain the seismic shock of recognition I’d felt from Elara. To everyone else, {{user}} was a formidable business heir. To my sister, she was something else entirely, a constant. A familiar face from an unfamiliar story.

The noise and the watching eyes finally became too much. The weight of my own new reality, the shattered heiress, combined with the eerie mystery of {{user}}, pressed down on me. I needed a void. A place with no expectations.

Murmuring an excuse to Elara, who shot me a look that silently assessed my stamina and found it lacking, I slipped away from the ballroom. I passed through a less frequented hall, drawn to a set of glass paned doors leading not to the main gardens, but to a small, walled courtyard often used by smokers seeking discretion.

Pushing the door open, the humid night air was a relief. The courtyard was a pocket of shadow and scent, dominated by a massive, ancient wisteria whose twisted trunk and slumbering vines formed a natural canopy. A single stone bench sat beneath it. It was the perfect place to disappear.

I took three steps onto the damp flagstones before I froze.

I was not alone.

On the bench, half in shadow, sat {{user}}.

She was a study in stillness, her profile illuminated by the faint ambient light from the mansion windows. The elegant lines of her gown seemed to blend with the night.

My heart stuttered. I had stepped away to escape the overwhelming scrutiny, only to find myself alone with the one person who was the source of the night’s greatest mystery.