Chapter 9: Silk and Silver Spoons
(Teaser)
The car smelled like jasmine, leather, and money. Eva sat perfectly still, strapped into a custom child seat that matched the hand-stitched interior—her patent shoes tapping faintly, her expression unreadable. She looked like a doll designed for display. She was not amused.
Tonight was no playdate or patisserie run. It was her first Lioré family banquet. Capital F. Capital Event.
She'd been briefed like a diplomat. Dress sharp. Speak less. Smile never.
Inside the estate, everything glittered—crystal, candlelight, carefully concealed tension. Eva moved like a shadow beside her father's leg, unseen but seeing everything. She tracked names, faces, lies masquerading as pleasantries.
When her grandfather called her "small," she curtsied with lethal precision and answered with a single line that shifted the room's temperature.
Later, when a sharp-eyed guest tested her intelligence, Eva didn't blink. She gave him a math fact that made her mother choke on wine and her aunt nearly cry with laughter.
She wasn't trying to be impressive. She just was.
And through it all—beneath silk dresses and silver spoons, between power plays and fake smiles—Eva remained exactly herself. Observing. Remembering. Enduring.
Because being born a Lioré didn't mean she belonged to them.
Not yet.