The night it ends where it began, Aria Sterling Cross is wearing blue.
Not a catering uniform. Not a revenge dress. Not a hospital gown or a wedding dress or a bathrobe at two AM in a Montana kitchen. Just a dress. Deep blue, the color of the Montana sky an hour after sunset, chosen because it's the one Damien asked her to wear when she asked what he wanted her to wear and he said, the blue one, the one you had on in Singapore on the video call when you told me about section 7.3, which is one of the stranger dress compliments she's ever received and also the most specifically him.
The event is Stellar Holdings' ten-year anniversary gala.
Her grandfather's company. Reborn. Ten years of her at the helm. Five years of their names together on the door.
The venue is a ballroom in Billings. Not New York. Montana, deliberately. The thing they've built is rooted here and she wanted the celebration rooted here too.
