The Lioness Awakens

​The "Code Silver" announcement felt like a physical blow. The hospital room, once a place of recovery, suddenly felt like a tomb.

​"Go," Liam rasped, his hand dropping from mine as his vitals began to spike on the monitor. The effort of speaking was draining the life from him again. "Nora... take the power. Stop her."

​I didn't hesitate. The time for being the victim, the "hired womb," or the timid florist was dead. It died the second Eleanor Sterling laid her hands on my son again.

​I turned to Marcus Thorne, the attorney. He was already on his phone, his face grim.

​"Mr. Thorne," I said, my voice vibrating with a cold authority that made him snap his head up. "You said I am the majority shareholder. You said I have the power to fire the board."

​"Legally, yes," Thorne replied. "The documents are filed."

​"Then fire the head of Sterling Security. Now," I commanded. "And tell the backup team that if they don't have eyes on my son in five minutes, they’ll never work in this industry again. I want every private airfield within a hundred miles grounded. Use the Sterling influence. Use the money. Do whatever it takes."

​Thorne stared at me for a heartbeat, seeing the shift in my eyes. Then, he bowed his head slightly. "Consider it done, Ms. Sterling."

​I didn't correct him on the name.

​The drive to the Sterling private airstrip was a blur of high-speed turns and sirens. I sat in the back of a blacked-out SUV, my fingers digging into the leather upholstery. I had Mia with me—I couldn't leave her at the hospital, not with the "Gemini Effect" tethering her life to Leo's. She was awake now, pale and silent, clutching my arm.

​"Leo is scared, Mommy," she whispered, her eyes fixed on the window. "I can feel him. He’s in a dark place that moves."

​"We’re coming for him, baby," I promised, though my heart was a block of ice.

​We arrived at the hangar just as a sleek, silver Gulfstream began to taxi onto the runway. The Sterling logo—the silver eagle—gleamed mockingly under the airfield lights.

​"Block the runway!" I shouted into the radio Thorne had given me.

​Two Sterling security SUVs roared onto the tarmac, skidding into a sideways block directly in the path of the jet. The pilot slammed on the brakes, the engines screaming in protest.

​I didn't wait for the car to fully stop. I threw the door open and sprinted toward the plane, the wind from the turbines nearly knocking me off my feet.

​The stairs of the jet lowered slowly. Eleanor Sterling stepped out, her chin held high, her white hair perfectly in place even in the gale. She held Leo by the shoulder, his small face streaked with tears. In his other hand, he was clutching the blue rabbit.

​"That’s enough, Nora!" Eleanor shouted over the roar of the engines. "You’re playing a game you don't understand. Step aside, and I’ll ensure the girl lives a comfortable life. Stay in my way, and I’ll ensure neither of them sees another sunrise."

​"You’re finished, Eleanor," I said, walking toward her, every step a declaration of war. "Liam woke up. He told me everything. He gave me the company. He gave me the power to bury you."

​Eleanor’s face contorted. "He gave it to a peasant? He would rather destroy his legacy than let me protect it?"

​"You didn't protect it! You murdered my grandmother!" I was screaming now, the rain starting to fall, mixing with the tears on my face. "You separated my children! You’re not a Matriarch, you’re a monster!"

​"I am a Sterling!" she shrieked. She reached down and snatched the blue rabbit from Leo’s hand. "You want this? This little piece of cloth is the only thing that could ever touch me? It’s gone!"

​She pulled a lighter from her pocket.

​"No!" Leo screamed—his second word since the trauma, a raw, guttural sound of grief.

​"Stop!" I lunged forward, but Eleanor’s security detail stepped in front of me, their hands on their holsters.

​Eleanor held the flame to the rabbit's ear. "If I can't have the empire, I will burn the evidence of how I built it. And then, I’ll take this boy where you’ll never find him."

​"Wait!"

​A new voice cut through the noise. It wasn't mine. It wasn't Liam’s.

​It was Vanessa Laine.

​She walked out from the shadows of the hangar, her face bruised from Sofia Moretti’s strike, her eyes wide and bloodshot. She wasn't holding a gun this time. She was holding a tablet.

​"It’s too late, Eleanor," Vanessa said, her voice trembling with a mix of fear and spite. "I didn't just want Liam. I wanted the Sterling power for myself. I’ve been bugging your office for months. I recorded the phone call you made to Dr. Aris five years ago. I’ve already uploaded it to the cloud."

​Eleanor froze, the lighter flickering in the wind.

​"You... you traitor," Eleanor whispered.

​"I learned from the best," Vanessa sneered.

​Eleanor looked from Vanessa to me, then at the rabbit in her hand. A look of pure, unhinged desperation crossed her face. She realized the walls were finally, truly closing in.

​She didn't drop the lighter. Instead, she grabbed Leo and pulled him toward the edge of the stairs.

​"If I'm going down," Eleanor hissed, her voice barely human, "I’m taking the heir with me."

​She stepped back, dragging Leo toward the drop. But Leo didn't stay passive. He looked at Mia, who was standing by the SUV.

​The twins locked eyes.

​Suddenly, Mia let out a piercing, high-pitched scream. At the exact same moment, Leo bit Eleanor’s hand with everything he had.

​Eleanor shrieked, letting go of the boy and the rabbit. Leo scrambled toward me, but the blue rabbit tumbled over the edge of the stairs, caught by a gust of wind, and blew directly into the intake of the jet’s idling engine.

​BOOM.

​A massive fireball erupted from the turbine. The force of the explosion threw everyone back.

​I hit the tarmac hard, the world spinning. I looked up through the smoke. The wing of the plane was on fire. Leo was coughing, crawling toward me.

​But Eleanor was gone.

​I looked toward the burning engine. And then I saw it.

​Through the flames, a figure emerged from the back of the hangar. It wasn't a rescue worker. It was the man from the shipyard—the scarred Moretti man who I thought was dead.

​He wasn't looking for Eleanor. He was looking at the burning engine, where the ledger—the only thing that could clear his family’s name—had just been incinerated.

​He turned his gaze to Leo, his face a mask of demonic fury. He pulled a long, serrated blade from his belt.

​"If there is no justice for the Morettis," he growled, "there will be no peace for the Sterlings."

​He lunged not for me, but for Leo.

The evidence is destroyed, the plane is an inferno, and a vengeful ghost has come to claim the life of the heir. With the security teams distracted by the fire, Nora is the only thing standing between Leo and a blade. But where is Eleanor, and did she truly perish in the blast?