more each day. She’d seen grief, endured it, seen suffering,
lived that too. She wasn’t some naïve little rich girl.
“No,” Coralyn said instead. “I don’t think it does. I just
thought you might agree. I had to come here and try. What else
was I supposed to do? Nothing? Watch my dad die, knowing I
hadn’t even attempted to do what I could?”
Giana stayed perfectly composed. Either pain didn’t faze
her or she’d never lost anyone in her life. She didn’t even
blink. Just stared at Coralyn, stared a burning hole right
through her, as if she was no one and nothing.
I am no one and nothing to her.
She sucked in a breath, scenting the expensive perfume
Giana wore now that she was so close. It was so damn alluring
that Coralyn’s stomach clenched. She didn’t want to find this
cold, horrible woman enticing. She was beautiful, but clearly
that was only what people loved to say it was. Skin deep. On
the inside she was no one, and she was nothing. Just a
collection of cells and blood and matter and an unfeeling,
uncaring, cold heart.
Everything about her was so perfect. Coralyn decided she
hated all of it. She hated this place, this office, this
condescending, controlling, powerful ice queen ruling over it.
She hated the way Giana’s shrewd eyes glinted with
satisfaction as Coralyn felt herself crumpling. She was so
deceptively calm, or maybe there was no deception, and she
wasn’t hiding anything under that façade because she felt
nothing at all.
“No. I won’t lend it to you. It’s too precious.”
“My father made that necklace!” Coralyn los
t it. She finally