The North Pier was a graveyard of rusted shipping containers and skeletal cranes. The fog rolled off the Atlantic like a shroud, dampening the sound of my boots against the wet concrete. My silk dress, now torn at the hem, fluttered in the freezing wind a stark reminder of the gala I had just abandoned.
"I'm here!" I shouted into the gloom. "Let him go!"
A floodlight snapped on, blinding me. I squinted, shielding my eyes, and saw the silhouette of a woman standing atop a stack of containers. Leo was slumped in a chair below her, his face bruised, his mouth taped shut. His eyes widened when he saw me, frantically shaking his head.
"Nineteen minutes early," the voice crackled through a megaphone. "Punctuality. At least Silas taught you that much."
The woman jumped down, landing with the grace of a cat. As she walked into the light, the resemblance was sickening. She was me in twenty years if my soul had been replaced by a block of ice.
"Mother," I spat, the word feeling like poison.
"Elena," she corrected, her eyes cold. "The woman who gave you life is dead. I am the woman who survived what the Thornes did to us."
"You kidnapped an innocent man to get to me," I said, stepping forward. "If you hate the Thornes, go after Lucian. Leave my life out of it."
Elena laughed, a sharp, hollow sound. "Your life? Aria, your life has been a curated lie since the day you met Mark Thorne. Do you really think it was a coincidence that you 'happened' to meet him at that library? Or that he 'happened' to need exactly the kind of coding genius you were?"
My heart stuttered. "What are you saying?"
"I groomed him," she whispered, leaning in close enough for me to see the jagged scar on her neck. "I found a greedy, mediocre boy and gave him the tools to ruin you. I needed you to be destroyed. I needed you to hit rock bottom so you would wake up and become the weapon the Vance family needs to finish this war."
The world tilted. The five years of my marriage the sacrifices, the late nights, the heartbreak it wasn't just Mark's greed. It was my mother's design.
"You ruined my life... to test me?"
"I made you a Queen," she countered. "And look at you now. You've reclaimed your throne. But you've made a fatal error. You've crawled into bed with Lucian Thorne. You've handed the keys to the kingdom to the son of the man who ordered my execution."
"Lucian is not his father!"
"He is a Thorne!" Elena roared, her composure breaking. "And tonight, I'm going to show you what that name really means."
She pulled a remote from her pocket. A screen on the container wall flickered to life. It was a live tracker. A red dot was moving rapidly toward the pier.
"Lucian is coming, Aria. Despite my warning. He couldn't help himself. He doesn't trust you to handle this. He thinks you're his property."
She turned back to Leo, the silver scalpel gleaming in the moonlight. "Now, we see what you choose. The Thorne who lies to you, or the friend who stayed loyal. The moment Lucian's car crosses the perimeter, the floor beneath this chair drops. Leo falls into the harbor, tied to fifty pounds of lead. You have thirty seconds to stop Lucian's car, or say goodbye to your friend."
"Lucian, stop!" I screamed into my comms, but they were jammed. The red dot was seconds away.
I looked at Leo. I looked at the dark, churning water of the Atlantic. Then I looked at the woman who claimed to be my mother.
"You want a weapon?" I whispered, my voice turning into a serrated blade. "I'll show you a weapon."
I didn't run for the car. I didn't beg. I lunged at Elena, not with my hands, but with the tactical knife Lucian had taught me to hide. But as our blades clashed, a third sound broke through the wind.
BANG.
A gunshot rang out from the darkness.
Elena gasped, clutching her shoulder as she spun around. I looked toward the entrance of the pier, expecting to see Lucian's Maybach.
But it wasn't Lucian.
It was Sarah.
She was standing there, bedraggled and wild-eyed, holding a pistol with both hands. She had escaped custody. "If I'm going down," Sarah shrieked, aiming the gun at me, "I'm taking the whole Vance bloodline with me!"
Sarah pulled the trigger.
Elena moved not to attack me, but to throw her body in front of mine.
The bullet hit. Elena collapsed against me, her weight pulling us both to the ground. At the same moment, Lucian's car roared onto the pier, tires screeching as he slammed into the containers to stop the mechanism from dropping Leo into the sea.
Everything happened in a blur. Lucian was out of the car, his gun drawn, taking Sarah down with a single shot to her leg. He sprinted toward us, but I was staring at my mother's blood on my hands.
"Why?" I choked out, looking at Elena. "You said you wanted to destroy me."
Elena coughed, a crimson stain spreading across her black suit. She reached up, pressing a small, bloody microchip into my palm.
"The... the Black Box..." she whispered, her voice fading. "It's not an AI, Aria. It's... it's a list. Every politician, every judge... every Thorne... who was on the payroll. Don't... don't trust the wedding, Aria. Lucian... he's the one who..."
She went limp in my arms.
"Lucian!" I screamed as he reached us.
He knelt beside me, his face a mask of horror. But as he reached for the microchip in my hand, his movements were too fast. Too precise. He wasn't checking her pulse. He was looking for the chip.
I pulled my hand back, a cold, terrifying realization dawning on me.
"Aria, give it to me," Lucian said, his voice dropping into that low, persuasive baritone. "It's dangerous. I'll keep it safe."
I looked at the chip. I looked at my dying mother. Then I looked at the man I was supposed to marry in forty-eight hours.
"You didn't come here to save me, did you, Lucian?" I whispered, the rain washing the blood off my face. "You came for this."
Lucian didn't answer. He just stood up, the light behind him making him look like a giant of shadow. The sirens were getting closer, but for the first time, I realized the police weren't coming to help me.
They were coming for the chip. And I was the only thing standing in their way.