The Ex-Wife's Burning Elegance

Candida said, "I was prepared for any kind of chaos tonight-honestly, I can't believe nothing happened."

No one could blame her for thinking that way. When you're in the spotlight, trouble has a habit of finding you.

Given all the vultures circling around Stella, it would've been more surprising if the evening had gone off without a hitch. Everyone had braced themselves, expecting some sort of incident.

The real shock was that absolutely nothing went wrong.

Abby spoke up, "Just because the concert's over doesn't mean we can let our guard down. The enemy might be waiting for us to relax before making their move."

Antoney, Candida, and the others nodded in agreement.

Stella glanced at her watch. "It's getting late. The afterparty's about to start. We should go-Neville and the others are probably waiting."

Abby nodded. "Right, let's get moving."

and Aurora were leaving the concert hall, chatting as

really has something special. After tonight, her reputation's only going to soar.

to connect the dots—realizing Stella is Raven. Now,

this was expected—her entire reason for competing was to be defeated by Stella. She'd always had perspective when it

injustice? She could live

a good thing. The Williams family

let the subject drop and said

the venue, Aurora turned to Simone. "Want to come over to my place

her head. "I think I'll have plans with

about to part ways when Aurora suddenly caught a glimpse of someone lurking

spine and, acting

something splashed toward them, hitting

face drained of

...

marked by the harsh, red