“For my entire life, I was the secret architect of my stepbrother Hector' s perfect world. As the CEO of our family's empire, I funded his every whim, letting him play the prince while I quietly ran the kingdom. That all ended the night his girlfriend-a bar manager I once hired-had me beaten in the cellar of my own hotel. She called me a charity case, a pathetic leech trying to mooch off his money. Then she and her guards cracked three of my ribs and demanded half a million dollars to let me go. All while Hector, the brother I had sacrificed everything for, ignored my desperate calls. He was too busy partying in the penthouse I paid for. When he finally learned what happened, he took her side. He called me a bitter old hag, a monster trying to ruin his happiness. The physical pain was nothing compared to the chilling realization that the man I had protected for decades was a parasite. Lying on that cold concrete floor, I understood. I wasn't just going to cut him off. I was going to burn his entire world to the ground, starting with the thirty-year-old secret of his birth that I had sworn to protect.”