Athena stood before the wide vanity mirror in her room, her reflection framed in soft golden light.
For a long moment she simply stared, shoulders drawn back, chin lifted as if the glass itself were her first audience. Tonight wasn't just another evening; it was her formal introduction to the world—not as the good doctor who blended into the shadows of labs and crises, but as Athena Cecilia Caddels Thorne, granddaughter of the infamous Edward Thorne, and heir to the sprawling empire that carried his name.
She let the weight of the name roll silently on her tongue, the decision she had made only hours before still echoing in her chest.
The family lawyer had asked, almost expecting, that she abandon "Athena Caddels," as if the person she had been until now was a discarded skin. But she had insisted, calm but unyielding, that her name remain intact—every part of it.
Athena Cecilia Caddels Thorne. A declaration of both past and present, of roots and reinvention.
