Maya's POV
Valentina Winchester. That name Sebastian had whispered during our storm-filled night together, spoken like a wound that refused to heal. The woman who had shattered his trust in the cruelest way imaginable. Now she stood before me, manicured hand outstretched, lips curved in a smile that never quite reached her calculating eyes.
"Such a pleasure," I managed, clasping her hand with more force than necessary. "Maya Hayes."
"Maya," she repeated slowly, rolling my name around like she was examining it for flaws. "How wonderfully unusual. Sebastian was always drawn to the unexpected."
Her accent carried traces of old Valentian nobility, each syllable precisely crafted yet somehow poisonous. Sebastian had transformed beside me into something carved from marble, nothing like the passionate man who had pulled me close just moments before.
