The Price of the Throne

​The "Happy Ever After" I felt on the balcony lasted exactly forty-eight hours.

​Liam was home, yes. He was breathing, yes. But the man who stepped out of that hospital bed wasn't just my lover—he was the CEO of a multi-billion dollar empire that was currently being circled by vultures.

​"Nora, you need to sign these."

​Liam was sitting in the library, his shoulder still in a sling, his face pale but determined. Spread out before him weren't flower catalogs or house listings. They were legal injunctions.

​"What are these?" I asked, setting down a tray of tea.

​"Challenges to your shares," Liam said, his voice hard. "My mother’s disappearance triggered a 'stability clause' in the corporate bylaws. The Board of Directors doesn't believe a 'nanny' should hold the deciding vote in the world's largest shipping conglomerate."

​"I'm not just a nanny," I reminded him, my heart hardening. "I'm the mother of the heirs."

​"To them, you're a security risk." Liam looked up, and for a second, I saw the old Ice CEO in his eyes. "And now, we have a bigger problem. The Moretti explosion wasn't an isolated incident. Look at the news."

​He turned on the large monitor on the wall.

​“Breaking News: Sterling Global stocks plummet as rumors of a ‘Second Heir’ surface. Anonymous sources claim the Sterling bloodline is tainted by a secret surrogacy scandal...”

​My breath hitched. "Vanessa. She leaked it before she was arrested."

​"It’s worse than a scandal, Nora," Liam stood up, wincing as he gripped the desk. "In the Sterling world, a secret child isn't a joy—it's a target. Every rival we have now knows that I have a daughter who hasn't been trained, hasn't been guarded, and is my greatest weakness."

​The front gates of the estate buzzed. A security guard's voice crackled over the intercom.

​"Mr. Sterling, there is a legal team at the gate. They claim to represent the 'Sterling Trust.' They have a court order to take the children for 'protective evaluation'."

​I dropped the tea tray. The porcelain shattered against the floor, a mirror of my heart.

​"Evaluation?" I screamed. "They want to take them again?"

​"My mother’s lawyers," Liam hissed, reaching for his phone. "She’s not dead, Nora. I can feel it. She’s playing her final card. If she can prove we are 'unfit' parents due to the shipyard violence, the Trust takes the children, and she regains control through a guardianship."

​Suddenly, Mia ran into the room, her face wet with tears.

​"Mommy! Leo won't wake up!"

​I didn't wait for Liam. I sprinted toward the nursery, my blood turning to liquid nitrogen. I found Leo lying on his bed, his breathing shallow, his skin covered in a strange, blueish rash.

​He wasn't just sick. He had been poisoned.

​I looked at the window. It was slightly ajar. On the sill sat a small, carved wooden snake—the same mark as the Moretti dagger.

​But this snake had a crown.

​"Liam!" I yelled, my voice a jagged edge of panic. "They're already inside the house!"

​As Liam limped into the room, the lights in the estate didn't just flicker—they turned blood-red. The emergency system had been hijacked.

​A voice boomed over the house speakers, distorted and terrifyingly familiar.

​"The game isn't over, Nora. You kept the girl. Now, pay the price in blood. You have one hour to choose which child receives the antidote. One survives. One dies. The Sterling legacy must be pure."

​It was Eleanor's voice.

​Liam fell to his knees beside Leo, his eyes filled with a helpless, screaming agony. He looked at me, then at Mia, then at our dying son.

​The "Regret" phase was over. The "Survival" phase had begun.

Eleanor is alive and has forced Nora and Liam into a "Saw"-style choice. To save their son, they must risk their daughter—or find a third way out before the clock hits zero.