Arabella had stopped meeting Andrea deliberately. She hadn't even picked up one of her calls.
There was a reason behind it.
There had been a reason for it.
It was a twisted form of protection. Alina had already used Angelica as a warning. Arabella had no intention of giving her another name to threaten. No second weakness to exploit.
That had been the point.
But that calculation shifted the moment Julie became entangled in her sponsorship.
Whether it had been deliberate or merely an opportunity seized didn't matter. What mattered was the precedent. If it could be done once, it could be done again.
And Arabella had no intention of offering anyone else up as something that could be bartered, threatened, or destroyed to make a point.
But now—
The people she had chosen to stand beside had already reached their own conclusion.
To them, Andrea was not replaceable to Alina. Whether that was true or not was irrelevant.
