Emma's POV
"My fingerprints?" I stare at Damien. "That's impossible. I haven't been near Victoria since the reception."
"Apparently you have." Damien pulls up something on his phone. Shows me a news article already posted. "Police found your fingerprints on a glass in Victoria's bedroom. The glass contained traces of arsenic."
Arsenic. Poison. Murder attempt.
My legs give out. I sink onto the couch.
"I didn't do this. I swear I didn't—"
"I know." Damien's voice is firm. "But someone wants everyone to think you did. Someone who has access to your fingerprints."
"How is that even possible?"
Eleanor appears with water. Hands me a glass with shaking hands. "Dear, when's the last time you were at your father's house? Touched anything there?"
I think back. "Last week. I dropped off some documents. I used a glass from the kitchen for water."
"They kept it." Damien's jaw clenches. "They kept your glass, transferred your fingerprints to a new glass at Victoria's house, added poison. Frame job. Professional."
"But why? Why would they poison Victoria?"
"Maybe they didn't." Eleanor sits beside me. "Maybe Victoria poisoned herself. Munchausen syndrome, remember? She's faked illnesses before. Maybe she took this too far."
"Or," Damien adds darkly, "Patricia poisoned Victoria to frame you for attempted murder. Kill two birds with one stone—get rid of the stepdaughter who's becoming a liability and frame you for it."
My head spins. "This is insane."
"This is strategy." Damien starts pacing. "Emma, you were already publicly humiliated. Your family already called you mentally unstable on TV. Now you're a missing person suspected of attempted murder. If you surface, you go to jail. If you stay hidden, you look guilty."
"So what do I do?"
"Nothing. Emma Chen does nothing because Emma Chen is gone." Damien stops pacing. "But Emma Sterling starts building an empire."
"While I'm wanted for attempted murder?"
"While you're presumed missing and possibly dead." Damien pulls up more news. "Look. They're already speculating you committed suicide. Give it a week and they'll be searching rivers for your body."
The thought makes me sick.
"Let them think I'm dead?"
"It's perfect actually." Damien's mind is clearly working fast. "Dead people can't be arrested. And Emma Sterling has no connection to Emma Chen. You're free to rebuild while they waste time searching for a corpse."
"What about Victoria? Is she actually hurt?"
Damien makes a call. Listens. Hangs up. "She's in stable condition. Stomach pumped. She'll survive. Doctors say she ingested arsenic but not enough to kill her."
"Convenient," Eleanor mutters. "Just enough to be dramatic but not fatal. Classic Munchausen behavior."
"Or classic framing behavior," I counter. "If Patricia wanted to frame me, she'd make sure Victoria survived to play victim."
"Either way," Damien says, "you can't defend yourself publicly. So we focus on what we can control. Building Emma Sterling into someone powerful."
"How?"
"Training. Transformation. Creation." Damien opens his laptop again. "Starting tomorrow, you begin intensive education. Business strategy. Public speaking. Fashion design—your real designs this time, not the ones Alexander stole. Eleanor will handle your physical transformation. I'll handle your business education."
"And then what?"
"Then we launch Sterling Fashion House." Damien shows me a business plan he apparently prepared weeks ago. "Your fashion company. Using designs Alexander can't touch because Emma Sterling has no connection to Emma Chen. We'll build you into a competitor that destroys him financially."
I stare at the detailed business plan. "You've been planning this for how long?"
"Three years. Since I realized Alexander was using your design ideas." Damien scrolls through documents. "I've been waiting for the right moment. The moment when you'd be desperate enough to accept my help."
"So you've just been waiting for my life to fall apart?"
"I've been preparing for when the Kanes did what they always do—destroy people." Damien's voice is matter-of-fact. "Emma, I'm not the villain here. I didn't betray you. I didn't steal from you. I didn't frame you for attempted murder. I'm the one offering you a way to fight back."
He's right. I hate that he's right.
"When do we start?"
"Now." Damien stands. "Come with me."
He leads me to a room I haven't seen yet. Inside is a complete home gym. Weights, treadmill, yoga mats.
"Physical training first," Damien explains. "Confidence starts with how you carry yourself. You've spent six years making yourself small for Alexander. Hunching. Apologizing. Taking up as little space as possible."
I realize he's right. I do hunch. I do apologize constantly. I learned to disappear.
"Starting today, you take up space. You stand tall. You move like you own every room." Damien gestures to the gym equipment. "Eleanor will work with you on this. One hour every morning. Non-negotiable."
"I don't—"
"Non-negotiable," Damien repeats firmly. "Emma Chen was a victim. Emma Sterling is a force. The transformation starts with your body language."
Eleanor enters wearing workout clothes. "Ready, dear?"
"I guess?"
The next hour is brutal. Eleanor is sixty but moves like she's thirty. She teaches me how to stand without slouching. How to walk without apologizing with every step. How to take up space without feeling guilty.
"Shoulders back," Eleanor instructs. "Chin up. Eyes forward. You're not asking for permission to exist. You're announcing your presence."
By the end, I'm sweating and sore. But when I look in the gym mirror, something is different. I look taller somehow. Stronger.
"Better," Eleanor says. "We'll work on this every day. Your body will remember even when your mind forgets."
Damien appears in the doorway. "Good session. Next up: business basics."
"Can I shower first?"
"You have ten minutes."
I rush through the fastest shower of my life. When I return, Damien has converted the dining table into a workspace. Papers everywhere. Laptop open. Empty chair waiting for me.
"Sit." He doesn't look up from his work.
I sit.
"First lesson in revenge," Damien begins, "is knowing your enemy better than they know themselves. Their weaknesses. Their fears. Their secrets." He slides a folder toward me. "This is James Kane's complete financial history."
I open it. Pages and pages of numbers, investments, transactions.
"I don't understand any of this."
"You will." Damien points to a specific line. "See this? Kane Industries owes three hundred million dollars to international creditors. The debt is due in six months. If they can't pay, they lose control of their company."
"Three hundred million?"
"James Kane made bad investments two years ago. Thought he could gamble his way to bigger profits. He lost. Badly." Damien shows me more documents. "He's been scrambling to cover it ever since. That's why he pushed Alexander toward Victoria. Your family has liquid assets he needs."
"My family isn't that rich—"
"Your mother's company shares are worth two hundred million on the open market. Patricia convinced your father to leverage them for cash to fund Victoria's fake medical expenses." Damien's smile is sharp. "Except Victoria isn't dying. So where's the money really going?"
Understanding dawns. "To James Kane."
"Exactly. Your family is funneling your mother's legacy to the Kanes to save their failing business." Damien leans back. "If we can prove the fraud—the fake medical expenses, the illegal share liquidation, the conspiracy—we can destroy them all at once."
"How do we prove it?"
"That's what you're going to learn." Damien opens another folder. "Alexander Kane. Age twenty-eight. Failed tech startup that survived only because of your money. Three patents filed under his name that use your design concepts."
He shows me the trademark documents. And there they are—my designs. My ideas. My sketches that I showed Alexander three years ago when I was dreaming about starting a fashion company someday.
He took them. Filed them legally. Made millions.
Rage burns through my chest.
"I want them back."
"You can't. Not as Emma Chen. She's dead." Damien's eyes glitter. "But Emma Sterling can create new designs. Better designs. Designs that make Alexander's stolen concepts look outdated and pathetic."
"I haven't designed anything in years."
"Then it's time to start again." Damien stands. "Tomorrow, Eleanor takes you shopping. New clothes. New style. New everything. We're building Emma Sterling's brand. But tonight, you study. Learn everything in these files. Memorize their weaknesses."
He leaves me alone with mountains of information about the people who destroyed me.
I read for hours. Learn about James Kane's gambling addiction. About Alexander's secret credit card debt. About Patricia's history of marrying wealthy men who mysteriously die young.
My father was her third husband. The first two died in "accidents."
The knowledge makes me sick and angry and determined all at once.
Around midnight, I hear voices. I'm so focused on reading I barely notice at first.
Then I recognize Damien's voice coming from his office down the hall. He's on the phone. Speaking quietly but not quietly enough.
I shouldn't eavesdrop. Should go to my room.
But something makes me creep closer to his office door.
"Yes, the plan is working perfectly," Damien says. "She's exactly what I need. Smart. Motivated. Desperate enough to do whatever I ask."
My stomach drops.
"No, she doesn't suspect anything yet," Damien continues. "She thinks this is about revenge on the Kanes. She has no idea about the real endgame."
Real endgame? What real endgame?
"Once Sterling Fashion House launches, we'll have access to Chen Enterprises through the legitimate business connection. Then we can execute the takeover." Damien pauses. "Emma's connection to her mother's company is the key. She doesn't realize it yet, but she's going to sign over control to me voluntarily."
I stop breathing.
"The trust fund money was just the beginning. Once I control Chen Enterprises, I'll have the resources to destroy Kane Industries completely. Emma thinks she's getting revenge. Really, she's handing me a billion-dollar company." Damien laughs. "She's perfect. Trusting. Naive. Exactly what I needed."
Tears stream down my face silently.
"Timeline? Six months. By then, Sterling Fashion House will be established enough to justify the business merger. Emma will sign everything over thinking she's building her empire. She'll never see it coming."
I back away from the door as quietly as possible. Get to my room. Close the door. Sink onto the floor.
He's using me. Really using me.
Not just for revenge against the Kanes.
He wants my mother's company. He's planning to steal it the same way James Kane stole from his father.
Everything—the rescue, the safe house, the new identity, the business plans—it's all manipulation. Damien isn't helping me. He's positioning me like a chess piece.
I am exactly what the anonymous texts warned me about: a weapon he'll destroy when he's done using me.
My phone—my new phone that Damien gave me—buzzes.
Text from unknown number: "Now you know the truth. Damien Cross is using you to steal your mother's company. But Emma, there's something he doesn't know. Something I'm willing to trade for your help. Meet me tomorrow at noon. Come alone. Or spend the rest of your life as his puppet."
My hands shake holding the phone.
I'm trapped between people who want to frame me for murder and a man who wants to steal my mother's legacy.
And I have no idea who to trust anymore.