JASMINE'S POV
There was something deeply ceremonial about returning to Heart Enterprises.
Not the ritual kind, nothing moonlit or blood-bound, no ancient chants or flickering candles in forgotten groves.
This was the other kind… the humankind. Routine, deliberate, calculated.
The kind of ceremony that came with clean lines, designer heels clicking like a metronome, and a red-lacquered signature on contracts worth millions.
I needed it.
Needed the press of real floors beneath my shoes, not the soft give of forest earth or the worn threads of bedroom rugs.
Needed the muted hum of office lights, their sterile glow a stark contrast to the whispering pines and the feral pulse of half-shifted bones.
I needed this world to remember who I was.
Because I damn well wasn't going to let it forget.
The driver opened my door before I even reached for the handle. I got out and walked into the sleek lobby like I hadn't been gone.
