> "Run, Amelia!"
James's voice was the last thing I heard before the chaos began.
The flash of lights.
The shout of armed men.
The way his hand pushed me behind him and out the back gate before he turned to face them alone.
I ran. Through the trees. Through darkness so thick I could barely breathe.
Branches tore at my arms. My lungs burned. But I didn't stop.
Because James told me to run.
And I trusted him.
Until I heard the gunshot.
I stopped cold — every muscle locked.
"No," I whispered. "No, no, no—"
A sharp pain burst behind my eyes, and then—
Everything went black.
---
I woke up somewhere cold.
Concrete walls.
No windows.
Only a flickering bulb above me and a rusted metal door.
My wrists were bound. My phone was gone. James… gone.
I tried to move, but my head spun violently. Drugged. I'd been drugged.
Footsteps echoed beyond the door.
It creaked open.
And in stepped the last person I expected to see.
Ethan.
"Ethan?" I croaked, throat dry. "What—what are you doing here?"
He didn't answer right away.
He looked different. Darker. Angrier. His suit was immaculate, but his eyes were… hollow.
"Are you hurt?" he asked calmly.
I blinked in confusion. "You tell me. I was kidnapped. I don't exactly feel great."
He sighed and crouched in front of me, as if we were still kids hiding from the rain under the staircase.
"You shouldn't have gone to find him."
"You mean my real father?" I spat.
He flinched. "You don't know what you've started."
"I know you betrayed me."
He stood abruptly. "I was trying to protect you."
"By turning me over to Windsor's thugs? Or by letting them shoot James?"
At that, his mask cracked.
"They didn't shoot him," he muttered. "He's alive."
Relief hit me so hard I nearly sobbed. But I didn't let him see it.
"Where is he?"
"Somewhere safe. For now."
"You have no right to do this," I snapped. "You're not my brother anymore, Ethan."
He looked down at me, jaw clenched. "I never was, Amelia. Not really. You were just… a secret my parents tried to turn into a daughter."
"Then why are you doing this?"
He didn't answer.
Not directly.
Instead, he said, "You have something they want. Files. Evidence. Names."
I stared at him.
> He wasn't just working with Windsor.
He was the inside man.
"You sold us out," I said.
He didn't deny it.
"I warned you not to trust him," Ethan said. "James is reckless. He'll burn the whole world just to watch the Windsors fall."
"Maybe it deserves to burn," I whispered.
Ethan knelt again, softer this time. "Don't make me choose between you and my family."
"You already did," I said. "And you chose power."
He hesitated, eyes glinting with something that looked like regret.
"You're going to stay here until you remember where the rest of those files are. If you cooperate, I'll make sure they don't hurt James."
I laughed bitterly. "That's the same promise your father made to my mother."
And we both knew how that ended.
He stood and knocked on the door.
Before he stepped out, I asked, "Did you ever really care about me? Or was it all a lie?"
He paused.
"I cared," he said. "Too much."
Then the door slammed shut again.
And I was alone.
---
Somewhere in the city, James was alive.
Somewhere, I had the power to end the Windsors — buried on a drive he'd hidden, probably already in their hands.
But I still had the originals.
The journal.
The letter.
The contract.
And I had something else they didn't count on.
Time.
I was down…
But I wasn't broken.