Chapter 1: The Weight of Marble and Money

The grand hall of the Sterling-Vance Museum of Antiquities was a monument to the unyielding power of generational wealth. Towering marble columns stretched toward a vaulted ceiling of glass, while massive crystal chandeliers cast a warm, golden glow over the polished floors. This was not merely a building; it was an altar where the city’s elite came to worship their own reflections. On this particular evening, the air was thick with the scent of expensive perfume and the hushed, calculated whispers of the ultra-rich. Men in immaculate black-tie attire and women adorned in haute couture mingled, their glasses of vintage champagne clinking in a symphony of polite exclusion.