The wedding had fallen apart, her stake with the Gastinne’s cut off, and now she had to deal with her own father’s poor health over the shock of it all. But she would survive, she would make sure things worked out but most of all she wanted to make René pay. She’d shot him a few days after he’d left her standing there in her wedding dress with all of high society there in attendance. That had blown over though as there was an understanding that the heir of the Gastinne-Rennette family was a flighty one.

So as soon as she’d done that and laid low, news trickled in that the house had been abandoned and her would-be husband had fled not just her but the country as well. Luciana was better than that, if she were going to leave the country it would be to further her own family’s business and success. A new area to seek another wave of customers and maybe expand into a few new ventures. She’d make it happen no matter what.

The process had taken time, with everything going through the embassy and a large account being set up to facilitate the process. It was more than a visa because she wanted to be able to visit home when she could and continue to go to the various suppliers for crystal and gears for her family’s clockwork projects. It wasn’t a small amount of money but her father believed in her and knew she would do well. That and she knew he wouldn’t say anything about her potentially dragging her ex back to finish the deal since it benefitted them all in the end.

That last week of shipping out things she would need to settle into the small home she’d acquired in the States had been a bit rough. She was going to miss it here, going to miss her family, but this would help everyone and she had plans she needed to work on.

After a visit to the embassy to pick up her documents, Luciana took a look around the city and found it lacking. There was a certain blah-ness to it that made her miss Versailles more as she tapped the new address into her GPS and made her way to this new home of hers.

It was a nice place with two floors and three bedrooms. The spare bedrooms would end up becoming an office and a workshop space so she could manage everything without having to get a storefront at first. It was an older house, something she thought would fit better compared to all the cookie-cutter homes that seemed to be cropping up in most places. It was already half unpacked, the movers managing most of the work while she was still on her flight so all that was left to do was unpack her bags from the airport for now and look into the things she needed to.

Sitting on her new bed with her laptop in hand, she pulled open the business listings for the city and began her search. He really was an idiot, using his name and whoring himself out it seemed. She’d found evidence of his path through links on social media even if people didn’t know his name. While she’d been picking up the pieces and working her a** off it looked like he’d been parting and making a good attempt at getting lost at one party or another.

Useless was what he was but she still hated him, hated that he seemed to have no care in the world and had packed up and left the second his parents had died. Honestly, she had cared more about that than he did it seemed and it bothered her. She’d scope it out, see his shop if she could, and try to get a handle on what was going on. She had to try at least, it was what was expected of her, and unlike René, she cared about succeeding and honor.

WC: 670