Scorned By Family, Freed By Fury

al piece of the puzzle. It ended with the s

o the pristine white marble. She held a shard from a broken champagne flute, her eyes wide with a terror I knew was fake. Ever

had tried to stop her. In her version of the story, the one she whispere

truction was the trigger. The family cr

terling, snarled. His voice, usually so commanding in boar

warmth I once thought we shared was gone, replaced by a cold fury that mirrored our father' s. He dra

g mansion, the place I had called home for two years, they didn't take me to my room. E

y pushed me past the expensive racks and into a small, empty storage room at the

ther, said from the doorway. Her elegant gown seemed out of place in the grime. Her fa

form blocking most of the light. "After everything we gave you

The lock clicked, a sound of fina

orphan adopted into the Sterling family. But my real identity was a number, an agent tasked with uncovering the illicit tech operations hidden behind Sterling Corp' s benevolent facade. The gala incident w

script. She had turned my

e corner that dripped slowly into a drain. The humiliation was a constant, gnawing thing. They were my targets,

dangerous. I had to get out. I activated the emergency beacon hidden in the sole of my shoe, a simple device that sent out a short, untrac

tions. Instead, it was Ethan. He didn' t say a word. He just placed a bowl

cold. He was setting up a small camera on a tripod, pointing i

going to

sinister. The camera felt like a violation that went deeper than the starvation or the

looked at me, huddled on the floor,

devoid of any emotion. "Charlotte is stil

ered, my voice hoarse. "Ple

he woman who once helped me pick out a dress for a

thing. Charlotte d

ened. "How dare you? You

scattering across the dirty floor. "I

me to control my emotions, to be a gray woman who could blend into any background. But in that mome

rds. A shove, a slap, just enough to assert their power and my helplessness. The

hone. He placed it on the floor and left without a word. It w

d says you' re too deep. Ma

nly connection to the world I actually belonged to, h

re leaving me here. To them, I was now just Ava Miller, the

Miller. But my own people were sentencing their agent to death. As I sat in the darkness, I felt a shift inside me.

agency. It would be because of me. And if I got out, I wouldn't just be p