POV: Vivian
Helena's journal arrives by courier that evening, delivered without explanation or context, just a leather-bound book wrapped in black cloth with a note: "You should understand what you're choosing to die for. Read pages 47-63. - H.S."
I open it carefully, aware this is Helena Sterling's personal documentation, decades of curse research and family history I shouldn't have access to. The pages she marked detail the Vanderwood curse in meticulous handwriting, cross-referenced with death certificates and medical records and testimonies from surviving family members.
Sienna reads over my shoulder as I flip through documentation of six generations of Vanderwood women dying young from loving too deeply.
"This is horrifying," Sienna says. "Every single woman who married for love died within ten years. Heart attacks, mysterious illnesses, childbirth complications. All of them young. All of them shortly after demonstrating strong emotional attachment to their husbands."
