"Joseph… Carpenter?" Raya repeated slowly.
The name rolled off her tongue with careful precision, but inside her head, it detonated.
The music, the laughter, the clinking of glasses, everything seemed to fade for a split second, leaving only that name echoing far louder than it should have.
Joseph Carpenter.
Her fingers curled slightly against her thigh.
No… it can't be a coincidence.
"Hey, Sera," Kiera said, tilting her head. "Do you know him?"
Raya blinked once, then twice, before lifting her gaze again. By the time she smiled, it was flawless, soft, calm, elegant. The kind of smile Seraphina Hart had mastered over years of high society gatherings.
"Of course not," she replied lightly. "I was just wondering about something ."
Her voice was steady.
Her heart was not.
Wasn't Joseph Carpenter supposed to be Anna's fiancé? Raya thought sharply. The same Joseph who promised marriage with one mouth and now betrayal with the other?
