This Time, She Walked Away First

Lena Clermont has long harbored a crush on Andrew Rohan, a friend of her father's who is twelve years her senior. She first met him as a girl, when he stood out in his sharp suit and broad shoulders, and he kindly patted her head and gave her a princess dress. Years later, at twenty, she finds him drugged at a banquet and steps forward in that very same dress, offering herself as the remedy. The moment ties her childhood admiration to a tangled, dangerous bond that pushes her toward a painful choice.