Chapter 1 - The Ghost in the Salon
"No what?" Marissa taunted, her fingers digging painfully into Harper's scalp. The razor hummed, vibrating against Harper’s skull. "No, you don't want to lose your precious hair? It's just hair, Harper. You’re becoming a mother. You need to look the part—the martyr, the suffering soul. The cameras love it."
Damon didn't turn around. He was checking his watch. "Make it quick, Marissa. We have the press arriving in an hour."
Harper felt the room spinning. The vanity mirrors reflected a nightmare: a pale, terrified woman with uneven patches of hair, surrounded by vultures in silk. She gripped the velvet armrest, her knuckles white. She looked toward the door, searching for an exit, when the heavy double doors of the west wing salon didn't just open—they groaned.
The air in the room shifted. It became heavy, charged with ozone and something sharper—retribution.
"I wouldn't," a deep, gravelly voice commanded.
The sound was like a whip crack. Marissa froze. The razor stopped inches from Harper’s skin. Damon finally turned, his bored expression fracturing into sudden, violent confusion.
Standing in the doorway was a man who didn't belong in the pristine, gilded world of the Caldwells. He wore a worn leather jacket, his face was lined with the grit of a man who had been hiding in the shadows for a decade, but his eyes—bright, piercing blue—were identical to Harper’s.
Harper stopped breathing. The floor tilted beneath her. "Dad?"
Elias Quinn didn't look at Harper yet. He walked into the room, his boots heavy on the marble. He looked at Damon, and the temperature in the room dropped ten degrees.
May you like
"I buried you," Damon hissed, his voice trembling for the first time. "Seven years ago. A car crash in Montana. You were dead."
Elias smiled, but it held no warmth. "That’s what I wanted the people who were trying to kill me to think. It’s amazing what a little silence can buy a man, isn't it, Damon? But when I heard my daughter was being tormented by the man who stole my life’s work, I decided being dead wasn't quite as convenient as it used to be."
