Amara's POV
I couldn't breathe when I saw my mother pointing a gun at me.
"Mom?" I whispered, wishing this was all a terrible nightmare.
"Hello, sweetheart," she said in the same voice she used to read me nighttime stories. "You look surprised to see me."
"We thought you were dead," I said, my voice shaking.
"I know," Mom said with a smile that didn't reach her eyes. "That was the point."
My whole world was spinning. First, I found out Sheila was my half-sister. Then I learned that Jayden had been tricked into betraying me. Now my own mother was standing in front of me with a gun.
"Why?" I asked. "Why would you fake your own death? Why would you let me think I lost you?"
"Because," Mom said, "I needed everyone to believe I was gone so I could finish what I started."
"What you started?" Dad asked, stepping protectively in front of me.
"Oh, James," Mom said, shaking her head. "You still don't understand, do you? This was never about Chairman Crain. This was never about Sheila. This was always about you."
"What are you talking about?" Dad demanded.
"I'm talking about fifteen years of marriage to a man who cheated on me," Mom said, her voice growing cold. "I'm talking about raising another woman's child as my own while you lied to my face every single day."
She pointed at Sheila, who was still in handcuffs.
"Did you really think I didn't know about her?" Mom continued. "Did you think I was stupid?"
"Sarah, I can explain—" Dad started.
"Explain what?" Mom interrupted. "Explain how you had an affair with my best friend? Explain how you got her pregnant and then abandoned her? Explain how you let me think we were a happy family while you had another daughter living across town?"
I felt sick to my stomach. My perfect family had been built on lies.
"I was young and stupid," Dad said. "It was a mistake—"
"A mistake?" Mom laughed, but it sounded more like a scream. "Our daughter thinks her half-sister is her best friend, and you call it a mistake?"
"You knew?" I asked Mom. "You knew Sheila was Dad's daughter this whole time?"
"Of course I knew," Mom said. "I've known since she was three years old. I watched her grow up. I watched her become jealous of you. I watched her hate you more and more each day."
"Then why didn't you tell us?" I cried.
"Because I was waiting," Mom said. "Waiting for the perfect moment to use that information to destroy your father's life, just like he destroyed mine."
Agent Thompson stepped forward. "Mrs. Kingston, put the gun down. We can talk about this."
"You work for me," Mom told him. "You don't get to tell me what to do."
"You've been planning this for fifteen years?" Dad asked in fear.
"Longer," Mom said. "I've been planning this since the day I found out about your affair. Every birthday party I threw for Amara. Every family dinner. Every 'I love you' I said to you. It was all part of my plan."
"What plan?" I asked, tears running down my face.
"The plan to take away everything you love, just like you took away everything I thought I had," Mom said to Dad.
"But I'm your daughter too," I said desperately. "You love me, right? You wouldn't really hurt me?"
Mom looked at me with eyes that were completely empty of love.
"You're his daughter," she said. "You look like him. You act like him. Every day, just looking at you reminded me of his deception."
The words hit me like physical blows. My own mother had been pretending to love me my entire life.
"I raised you," Mom continued, "because I needed you to be perfect. I needed you to have everything so that when I took it all away, it would hurt him as much as possible."
"You're insane," Jayden said.
"I'm not insane," Mom answered calmly. "I'm methodical. Do you know how long it took me to find Chairman Crain and convince him to help me? Do you know how hard it was to trick Sheila into hating her own sister without telling her the truth?"
She looked at Sheila with something that might have been pride.
"That girl made it so easy," Mom said. "All I had to do was encourage her anger. All I had to do was make sure she knew exactly what she was missing by not being part of our family."
"You destroyed her life," Dad said furiously.
"Just like you destroyed mine," Mom shot back.
"And Jayden?" I asked. "Did you manipulate him too?"
"That was Sheila's idea," Mom said. "But I gave the fake photos. I helped make the fake evidence. It was important that you lost everyone you cared about."
I couldn't stop crying. Everything good in my life had been a lie. My mother's love. My best friend's bond. My boyfriend's loyalty. None of it had been real.
"The car accident," Dad said. "You planned that too?"
"I planned everything," Mom said. "I hired the men. I cut the brake lines. I even chose the tree you would crash into."
"But you were in the car with us," I said. "You almost died too."
"No," Mom said. "I was never in that car. The woman in the passenger seat was a body double. Someone who looked like me from a distance."
"What happened to her?" Agent Thompson asked.
"She served her purpose," Mom said coldly.
The way she said it made my skin crawl. She had killed an innocent person just to fake her own death.
"Fifteen years," Dad whispered. "You've been planning this for fifteen years."
"Every day," Mom confirmed. "Every birthday. Every Christmas. Every time you told me you loved me. I was planning how to destroy you."
"Why now?" I asked. "Why did you finally do it?"
"Because you turned eighteen," Mom said. "Because you were about to receive the company. Because it was time for the final part of my revenge."
"Which is what?" Agent Thompson asked.
Mom smiled, and it was the most frightening thing I had ever seen.
"I'm going to kill everyone James Kingston loves," she said. "His illegitimate daughter. His business partner. His precious natural daughter."
She raised the gun and pointed it directly at my heart.
"Starting with you, Amara."
"Sarah, please," Dad begged. "She's innocent. She's just a child."
"She's your child," Mom said. "That's enough."
I closed my eyes and waited for the gunshot.
But instead, I heard something else.
The sound of another gun being loaded behind us.
"I don't think so," a voice said.
I opened my eyes and turned around.
Standing behind us, pointing his own gun at my mother, was Elijah Russell.
But that wasn't the shocking part.
The surprising part was what he said next.
"Hello, sister," Elijah said to my mother.
"Hello, baby brother," Mom responded without lowering her gun.
"Sister?" I gasped.
"Oh yes," Mom said with a terrible smile. "Didn't your father tell you? Elijah Russell is my brother. Which makes him your uncle."
"That's impossible," Dad said.
"Nothing is impossible when you've been planning revenge for fifteen years," Mom said. "I've been using my little brother to get close to your family the whole time."
I looked at Elijah in fear and confusion.
"Is it true?" I asked him.
Elijah's face was filled with pain and sorrow.
"Yes," he said softly. "Sarah is my sister. But Amara, you have to believe me. I never wanted any of this to happen."
"Then why are you here?" I asked.
"Because," Elijah said, his voice shaking, "I'm here to stop her."
He turned his gun toward my mother.
"I won't let you hurt Amara," he said. "Not even for you, Sarah."
Mom laughed.
"Oh, Elijah," she said. "You always were too soft. But don't worry. After I kill them, I'll make sure to tell everyone how you tried to save them."
"I'm not going to let you do this," Elijah said strongly.
"Yes," Mom said, "you are."
She pulled something from her pocket and held it up.
It was a picture.
"Do you remember this, baby brother?" she asked.
Elijah's face went white when he saw the picture.
"Where did you get that?" he whispered.
"I've had it for fifteen years," Mom said. "Ever since the night you killed our parents."