Chapter 1

The humidity of the late August night clung to my skin like a second layer of silk, heavy and sweet, smelling of jasmine and the faint, metallic tang of the city’s exhaust. It was a perfume I knew well, one that had filled the air during our family vacations in the Hamptons, in the Maldives, in this very city where we lived but rarely *were*. I stepped through the heavy glass doors of the rooftop terrace, the automatic click echoing softly against the low hum of the jazz ensemble playing near the bar. My heels clicked against the polished concrete, a sharp, deliberate rhythm that seemed too loud in the semi-private sanctuary of the upper floors. I had been told to wait for him. Just him. No entourage, no assistant, no mother hovering with her tablet and her perfectly coiffed hair. Just Daddy. The rooftop was a masterpiece of curated luxury. Below us, the city was a sprawling grid of amber and white lights, a galaxy trapped on earth, but up here, the world was reduced to the intimate circle of the pool deck. Cabanas draped in cream linen stood like silent sentinels, their curtains pulled back just enough to