The suite was silent.
Cambria stood frozen before the blank screen, her pulse roaring in her ears. The image of her sister bound, gagged, terrified was already seared into her memory. But it wasn't just the horror of the threat that stunned her.
It was the realization that she had underestimated Elena Thorne.
Again.
"Turn everything off," Elara said sharply, snapping into motion. She yanked cords, shut laptops, killed power to the monitors. "She's in the system. We're compromised."
Cambria didn't move.
Elara gripped her arm. "Cam, we need to go. Now."
But Cambria's mind was spiraling back to childhood. Back to the days when she and her sister, Seraphina, used to share secrets under their mother's staircase. Seraphina had always been the quiet one, the kind one. She'd stayed behind when Cambria left their small hometown, refusing to be dragged into the storm that followed her sister's rise and fall.
And now she was collateral.
"I should've told her to run," Cambria whispered.
"She didn't even know what you were doing," Elara said, her voice gentler now. "That was the point. You kept her out of this."
"Elena doesn't care," Cambria said. "She'll use anyone. Destroy anything."
"She's drawing you out," Elara said. "She wants you to be reckless."
Cambria looked at her, something flickering behind her eyes rage, sorrow, fear. "Then give her what she wants."
Later that night, Cambria slipped into her car alone.
She didn't tell Elara where she was going.
She didn't need backup.
She needed to face the ghost that had haunted her for years.
The Thorne Estate was a fortress of glass and stone, nestled in the Upper East Side like a monument to untouchable wealth. Cambria hadn't set foot there since the night before her wedding the night Elena had cornered her in the grand hallway and whispered:
"My son may be stupid enough to love you, but I'm not stupid enough to let you win."
Tonight, she wasn't here for permission. She was here for blood.
The gates opened before her car even stopped, as if someone had been watching, waiting. The foyer lights flickered on as she entered, casting eerie shadows on the marble.
"Elena!" Cambria shouted, her heels echoing like gunshots. "Show your face!"
And then she heard it.
The soft click of stilettos.
Elena Thorne emerged from the hallway like a queen descending her throne dressed in obsidian silk, her hair swept into a sculpted crown of silver. She looked unchanged by time, untouched by remorse.
"You always did like dramatic entrances," Elena said, her voice smooth as poison.
"You sent me my sister," Cambria snapped. "That was a mistake."
Elena gave a low, mirthless chuckle. "Oh, darling. You made the mistake. When you chose revenge over silence."
Cambria stepped forward. "If you touch her "
"She's fine. For now," Elena interrupted. "But she won't be for long… unless you do exactly as I say."
Cambria's fingers curled into fists.
Elena circled her like a predator. "I'll make this very simple. Walk away from the lawsuit. Walk away from Maddox. From everything. You disappear, and Seraphina goes free."
Cambria's breath caught.
"You want me to vanish," she said bitterly. "After everything you did?"
"I want peace," Elena said, her smile chilling. "But if I can't have that, I'll settle for silence. Permanently."
Cambria's heart pounded. "You want me gone because you're scared."
"I'm not scared," Elena said, her voice dropping to a near-whisper. "I'm cleaning up the mess my son made when he chose a girl from nowhere over the legacy I bled to build."
"You didn't build this empire," Cambria said. "You stole it."
Elena's eyes gleamed. "And you? You think you can take it from me with press leaks and courtroom speeches? You think I don't know what you're planning with Elara?"
Cambria faltered.
Elena smiled wider. "You're in over your head, sweetheart. And if you don't stop swimming your sister drowns."
Elara waited in the car outside Maddox's penthouse. She hadn't seen Cambria in hours, and every instinct screamed that something had gone wrong.
When the elevator finally opened, Cambria stepped out stone-faced, silent.
"Well?" Elara asked.
Cambria didn't speak. She simply handed her the burner phone Elena had given her a countdown timer already ticking on the screen. 23 hours. 59 minutes. 12 seconds.
"What is this?"
"Seraphina's life," Cambria said quietly. "And my deadline."
Elara swore. "We need to call in backup. Maddox has connections. Law enforcement, surveillance "
"No," Cambria said. "No one else. If we involve anyone, she'll kill her."
"And if you do nothing?"
"I have to disappear."
"No," Elara growled. "That's exactly what she wants. And if you do, Elena wins."
Cambria turned, her voice shaking but fierce. "This is not about winning anymore. This is about saving her."
Elara stared at her for a long time. "Then we fight smarter."
Cambria's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?"
Elara opened her laptop and pulled up a document Cambria had never seen.
A contract.
"Your father's company," Elara said. "You inherited 51% when he died, remember? You never touched it. But what if we use it now to create a media empire of our own. Something bigger than Thorne Tech. Something public enough that Elena can't touch you."
Cambria looked at the document, hope and fear warring in her chest.
"We fight back," Elara said. "With power. With visibility. We make you untouchable."
Cambria stared at the screen and slowly, a dangerous smile curved her lips.
"She wants a queen in silence?" she whispered. "Then I'll give her a queen with a microphone."
The next morning, a livestream goes viral.
Cambria King flawless, fearless stands behind a podium, cameras flashing.
"I was engaged to Maddox Thorne. I walked away after discovering the truth behind his family's empire. But I didn't walk away from justice."
She pauses.
"This is not about vengeance anymore. This is about truth. This is about survival."
The crowd roars.
But backstage, a courier slips through the chaos and hands Elara a plain white envelope.
She opens it.
Inside is a photograph.
Seraphina.
Lying unconscious.
And scribbled in red ink across the bottom:
"Tick, tick, tick. Queens fall too."