Beatrice froze for a fraction of a second, then recovered her smile. “Alexander… darling, you shouldn’t be here.”

He didn’t answer. Valerie walked straight to the front, facing the wall of cameras.

“Are you Maya Ross or Valerie Sterling?” a reporter shouted.

Valerie took a steady breath. “For two years, I was forced to live as Maya Ross, because powerful people decided that Valerie Sterling was worth far more to them dead.”

The room exploded. Beatrice slammed the podium. “This is a monstrous fabrication!”

Valerie looked her dead in the eye. “What was monstrous was using a closed casket to bury a truth you couldn’t control.”