The Vesper Room: Return of the Queen

Chapter One: They thought she was not qualified to enter

Just after midnight, Ava Monroe walked into “The Vesper Room”. She was wearing a black satin shirt and black trousers, and she carried a silence that could make the powerful feel contemptuous of her.

The interior of the club pulses like a living machine. Blue and violet lights stream across the mirrored walls. Behind the glass was the shimmer of a champagne bottle. A transparent LED dance floor flickered beneath the feet of bankers, models, athletes, internet celebrities and rich second-generation people who had waited months to get their membership cards.

The Twilight Club is not a place you can break into just by luck. It is the most intimate and exclusive private club in the city. Individual visitors are not accepted. Public reservations are not accepted. No photography allowed. There are no second chances.

Ava knows every rule here because her father himself made them. However, no one present knew this. In their eyes, she was just a young woman with straight black hair, slightly tired eyes, and not even a diamond around her neck. She wasn’t carrying a designer handbag. There are no conspicuous luxury logos. She was neither accompanied by a famous male companion nor a lively gathering of friends.

In their view, this itself is an out-of-place mistake.

In the middle of the dance floor stood Sienna Vale, the woman who everyone was paying attention to but no one dared to really say “no” to.

Xena wore a rose gold gown that sparkled in the spotlight. Her blond hair was styled into soft waves, and she held half a glass of red wine between her slender fingers. She laughed wildly, leaned very close to the powerful men, and regarded every woman in the club as a potential competitor.

Xena’s smile faded as Ava walked past her booth.

“Sorry,” Xena said.

Ava paused. Xena looked her up and down, her eyes like picking out a stain on expensive fabric.

“Are you lost?”

People around him looked sideways. Even before anything happened, some people couldn’t help but chuckle.

Ava’s voice was calm: “No.”

Xena tilted her head. “This is the members' area.”

“I know.”

The answer made Xena more offended than horrified.

She tapped her high heels on the glowing ground and approached step by step. “Where’s your membership bracelet? Where’s your exclusive booth? Where’s the person who brought you in?”

Ava said nothing.

Xena laughed and looked around. “See? This is what happens if you forget to close the door to the employee entrance.”

Someone behind her scoffed. The fingers at Ava’s sides tightened slightly.

She had heard too many such ridicules since she was a child. Her mother had worked in the building when it was not a private club but a seedy jazz bar with water stains on the ceiling and reminder bills stuffed under the counter. It was Ava’s father who bought the place, rebuilt it and promised her mother that no woman would ever feel inferior within these walls.

This promise is why Ava is here tonight. For six months, one report after another continued to arrive on her desk: employees were insulted, women were graded at the door, members poured drinks with impunity, and management trampled the rules to curry favor with the rich.

Ava didn’t believe it at first. Until Xina raised the wine glass in her hand.

“You know what I feel about it?” Xena said. “I feel like people like you are here just to stand next to money and pretend that they can get some light.”

Ava looked directly at her: “You better watch out.”

The surrounding area became quiet. Xena’s smile turned fierce.

“What if?”

Ava didn’t answer. then, Xina poured the wine over. The scarlet cocktail splashed onto Ava’s face and hair, flowing down her black shirt. The ice cubes smashed to the ground. A thin line of red liquid ran from Ava’s cheek to her chin.

The music continues. The crowd froze. Then, a sneer came from Xina’s booth. Xena leaned in so close that Ava could smell the champagne on her breath.

“Well,” she murmured, “now you look more like the kind of woman who was only qualified to work behind the bar.”

Ava closed her eyes for a full second. Not because she is weak. It was because she remembered her father’s voice. Never respond to cruelty with noise, Ava. Let this room answer it for you.

When she opened her eyes again, snickers had begun to spread around her. But Ava was no longer looking at Xena. She looked past Xena. It fell on the head of security.

Marcus Reed was standing next to the VIP stairs, headphones plugged into his ears, and his broad shoulders stretched out in a black suit. He had just been watching the conflict with a cold eye, obviously hesitating whether to offend someone for the sake of the club’s most profitable member.

Then, Ava gently raised two fingers. An small gesture. Almost effortless. Marcus’s face turned pale.