Chapter 1 - The Shattered Crystal
The Richmond Grand Ballroom was designed to make people feel important before they had done a single thing to deserve it.
A thousand pinprick lights glittered across the ceiling. White orchids climbed gold stands, and candlelight moved across polished marble like water. Senators, judges, and media executives mingled, holding expensive champagne, completely blind to the silent warfare happening near the center table.
Brooke Hathaway sat there in a dark red dress that caught the light every time she moved. She was thirty-one, the arrogant daughter of a massive political fundraising family, and currently engaged to the billionaire owner of the hotel.
Brooke wanted an audience. She wanted two hundred important people to laugh.
Nova Reyes, a thirty-three-year-old maid wearing a deep plum uniform, stepped forward with a silver tray carrying three crystal glasses of vintage champagne.
Before Nova could even set them down, Brooke casually, viciously swung her four-inch heel outward. Her shoe struck Nova’s shin. Hard.
The heavy silver tray tilted. Three crystal glasses violently hit the marble floor, shattering into a thousand glittering pieces. The string quartet stopped playing. Two hundred faces turned to watch the humiliation.
Brooke smiled triumphantly, expecting the maid to burst into terrified tears.
Nova did not cry. She did not shout.
She stood perfectly still, looking down at the broken crystal. She calmly picked up a linen napkin, dried her fingers, and looked directly into Brooke’s toxic eyes.
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"Please don't do that again," Nova said, her voice dropping into a soft, terrifyingly calm register.
👉 Brooke scoffed, completely unaware that pouring water at the next table would trigger an absolute avalanche.
