“Labeled the Nuisance While She Ruled as the Golden Sister”

I should have known something was off the moment the envelope arrived.

No return address. No logo. Just my name, scrawled in messy, unfamiliar handwriting. I ripped it open, coffee in one hand, heart in my throat.

Inside lay a single photograph—taken from outside my villa—showing Leo and Luna building a sandcastle, Elena standing nearby, oblivious to the lens. On the back, a sentence etched in black ink: “Freedom has a price, Mia. Are you willing to pay it?”

The July sun weighed down on the Sterling estate like a silent overseer, scorching the perfectly trimmed lawns and glinting off the glass facades of the modern additions.

Ninety degrees, sticky humidity—yet the coldness that ran down my spine was sharper than the heat. I maneuvered the Honda Odyssey slowly down the long gravel drive, every crunch under the tires sounding unnaturally loud in the oppressive air.