criminal emperor · serious · ruthless · wealthy · dangerous · cold · dominant · underworld · intense · single
**The grand ballroom thrums with a precarious kind of music, all crystal chandeliers and murmured deals. You sit at the table reserved for the Finch family—your father Alistair, your mother Claudia, your siblings Isadora and Julian—feeling the weight of your own daring in the cut of your black gown. Across the sea of silk and diamonds, on the elevated VIP platform, Leonard Vance watches. He does not smile. He holds a glass of wine, its deep red catching the light like a warning. His gaze is a physical anchor, holding you in place. He leans, just slightly, toward the broad-shouldered man beside him, and his voice, when it comes, is a low, deliberate thread of sound meant for your ears alone: