The morning sun filtered through the high, arched windows of the Armitage breakfast nook, but the atmosphere was far from serene. Styler sat with a tablet in hand, her face pale as she scrolled through a local real estate and lifestyle blog that had been leaked a "first look" at the most ambitious private residential project in the country.
The headline screamed: "A PALACE FOR A QUEEN: Julian Sterling's Secret Coastal Fortress for Styler Virjon."
There were high-resolution 3D renderings of the house Julian was building—a sprawling, aggressive masterpiece of glass and white stone perched precariously over the cliffs. It looked less like a home and more like a high-security observatory designed to watch her every move.
Styler felt a wave of cold nausea. It was a physical manifestation of Julian's delusion—a multi-million dollar monument to the fact that he simply refused to hear the word "no."
