Chapter 1. The birthday dinner
The corridors of the Los Angeles courthouse echoed under her heels.
At 26, Lynora Hale was already one of the youngest lawyers to plead in this courtroom.
Always upright, always calm, she moved forward without a word, her gaze fixed ahead.
Her black suit highlighted her slender figure, her blue eyes seemed made to challenge the truth, and yet… something within her remained distant.
Beautiful, yes. But a beauty that no one really dared to approach.
In her office, everything was in its place, just like in her life: orderly, controlled, locked down.
People said she never smiled, that she never lost. And it was true.
Lynora argued without raising her voice, but every word she spoke hit precisely, sharply, without appeal.
No one knew that behind this strength hid a fear of touch, a secret she carried like a second skin.
Beneath this steel facade, Lynora protected herself from a past she had never told.
Sixteen years earlier…
Lynora thought:
Today I turn ten. I’ve always dreamed of this restaurant where all the rich kids from my school come to chat, show off their extravagant birthdays, and everything that shines around them. Of course, we’re not rich. My father struggled to give us a good life, and in his eyes, we live like privileged people here in New York.
To my parents, I am the smart, promising girl.
Four courses at this restaurant will probably ruin Dad. I know it. My parents are far too weak to resist my big blue eyes. They agreed to take me, and my little sister Ella, who is currently five.
“Come on, my darlings, you’re so beautiful. Stand over there, I’ll take a photo,” said Mom.
“Come on, Mom, we’re running late. It’s a forty-minute drive,” I replied nervously.
“She’s right, my dear,” smiled Dad. “We’ll be late, but we’ll take some nice photos there.”
“Okay, okay, let’s go, let’s go!” said Mom.
Forty-five minutes later, we arrived.
“Wow… it’s so beautiful here!”
I’ll tell all my friends I came here tomorrow. They’ll surely be jealous, I thought as I walked in.
We sat down, laughed, talked, and the evening seemed perfect… until everything fell apart.
