Chapter 1

On the night of our engagement banquet, in front of the entire high society of New York, Julian Vance handed over "The Siren’s Lament"—a priceless, legendary violin—to his childhood sweetheart, Bianca Frost.

"Bianca is starting her world tour tomorrow. She needs this violin more than you do," he said.

"You’ve always been the sensible one, Valerie. Just bear with it this once."

I looked at the man I had loved for five years and nodded calmly.

"Okay."

Half an hour later, in the empty backstage dressing room.

Bianca didn’t just smash that legendary violin to pieces. She also had her thugs stomp on my right hand, crushing the bones.

Julian’s cousin, Tyler, held my head down, forcing me to kneel and beg Bianca for forgiveness.

Julian’s mother slapped me so hard my eardrum ruptured, calling me a greedy, low-class gold digger.

They ruthlessly trampled on my dignity and destroyed my dreams.

Because in their eyes, I was just a penniless orphan with no background.

But what they didn't know...

I wasn't just a prodigy violinist.

I was also the sole heiress of the Sterling family—the most powerful old-money empire in New York—who had been searching for me for twenty years.

My hand is ruined.

And the Vance family's century-old empire has officially reached its end.