Chapter 1

My dad died in a car crash, leaving me utterly alone, a heartbroken orphan.

Julian Harrison, an old family friend, significantly older than my dad, and the city’s wealthiest man, took me in.

He was ten years my senior, and he insisted I call him Julian.

From that day on, he spoiled me rotten, like I was the city's reigning princess.

If I wanted the stars, he'd find a way to get them for me.

If I craved the moon, he'd try to pluck it down.

That all changed on my eighteenth birthday.

I snuck into his study, snatching his ring, and traced it over my skin.

The cold metal mimicked his touch, a phantom caress that sent shivers down my spine.

The next second, the door flew open.

He walked in, catching me red-handed.

His face was a mask of disbelief, swiftly morphing into raw, furious rage.

He screamed that I was deranged, how *dare* I harbor such perverse thoughts about *him*, my guardian.

The very next day, he tore up my university acceptance letter.

Then he shipped me off to a high-society finishing school, the most infamous place in the city for instilling ‘moral values’ and ‘proper decorum.’

He told me to learn what true morality and virtue meant from the teachers there, to purge those scandalous thoughts from my mind, and only then could I come back.

But on my very first day, my eyes were doused with mustard.

The second day, I was dragged down the staircase for two agonizing hours.

The third day, a stranger somehow got into my room.