wo hours. Two hours of watching lawyers and their clients hurry past, their faces set with grim determination. Dam

yer, a man whose voice was as smoot

kwood was called into an urgent m

. He wanted to see how far he could push her before she broke completely. She ended the call

d to breathe. Her father was lying in a hospital bed, his life hanging by a

lks until she found herself on Fifth Avenue. The windows of the luxury boutiques glittered wit

by smaller stones on a platinum band. The Blackwood engagement ring. He had slid it onto her fing

and sharp, cut th

ck carpets that muffled all sound and security guards who l

approached her. The woman's eyes flicked over Seraphina's simple dre

y I hel

inger. She placed it on the velvet-lined tray on the glass counter.

to sel

, examining it under a loupe with an air of professional boredom. After a moment, she

," the woman said dismissively, as

ssness. But she needed the money. She was about to agree, to swallow her pride and take

ok who's fallen

od ran cold. Sh

hant smile on her perfectly made-up face. And on her arm, looking

gleaming. She picked up the ring from

cooed, her voice dripping with false sympath

be we should buy it? As a little souvenir of your failed marr

his eyes daring her to react, to cry, to scream.

st, choking her. She snatched the ring from Bianca's fing

" she said, her v

cage and the predators within it. But Bianc

ng venomous. "You're nothing now. A beggar. Why don't you be