Lingering Shadow

Catherine Blackwood, a gifted art restorer from a fallen noble family, is taken captive by cold investor Julian Sterling after her husband dies in a suspicious car crash. Trapped in his penthouse as his assistant, she uncovers the crash was orchestrated by Julian’s father Thomas, mastermind of a sinister network called “The Covenant” built on debt, neurodrugs and mind control. Catherine and Julian shift from hunter and prey to risky allies. Their mothers were the system’s original designers, punished for betraying Thomas — one imprisoned for 20 years, the other with her consciousness wiped. Catherine deciphers her mother’s pocket watch, frees Julian’s mother’s trapped consciousness, and learns to keep moving forward amid the wreckage.