Chapter 1
“Are you sure about this, Sienna?” Outside the airport terminal, a woman in a chic white suit clutched Sienna’s hand, her own trembling.
“You don’t have to go back to Solara,” she begged. Her blonde hair and blue eyes were swimming with a desperate plea. “Please. Stay here, with us.”
Sienna Hart, a vision of cool elegance, met her foster mother’s gaze. She pulled her into a deep, meaningful hug, her own eyes stinging.
“I have to go back, Mom,” she said softly. “But I’ll be back. I promise.”
But as the plane taxied down the runway, she knew this was a promise she might not be able to keep.
Three days ago, the dam of her memory had broken. Ten years washed away in an instant, revealing the truth of who she was. She remembered she was Sienna Hart, eldest daughter of the prestigious Hart family of Vallaris.
At eighteen, a trip abroad had ended in a fiery plane crash. By some miracle, she survived, only to be found by a kind couple who, believing she had no one, adopted her and raised her as their own.
Now, at twenty-eight, the past had come rushing back. Her family was alive. The weight of that knowledge was a moral compass she couldn’t ignore. She had to go home.
The flight was long, but sleep was a distant stranger. Sienna spent the hours piecing together the fractured memories of her family. It all felt like a bizarre, vivid dream from another lifetime.
At ten past 10 at night, Sienna finally arrived in Vallaris. She hailed a cab, and the driver greeted her with a thick Vallaris accent. “Where to, Miss?”
A faint smile touched her lips. “88 Maplecrest Avenue, please.”
“Well, I’ll be,” the driver said, catching her accent. “You don’t look local. I thought you were a tourist.”
Sienna’s smile widened. “I’m from here. It’s just…”
The smile faltered, a shadow of old pain and fresh hope passing through her eyes. “It’s been a long time.”
Ten years. A lifetime. Everything she knew was gone. She found herself thinking about her three little sisters – the giggles, the late-night chats, the way they used to huddle together on cold nights. Where are they now? Are they doing okay?
As she sank into her memories, the driver kept chattering on about how kids these days didn’t visit their parents enough. He didn’t stop talking until they finally pulled up to the address.
But as Sienna stepped out of the car, her eyes landed on a club she didn’t recognize – Charmvale. She stared at the sign, her brow knitting together. The name felt strange in her mouth. The world had really gone on without her.
Just as she turned to leave, a heated argument at the club’s entrance caught her eye. A man stood there, hands buried in his pockets lazily. He had the kind of face that spelled heartbreak, and his voice cut through the air like a blade, laced with cold indifference.
“Get it through your head,” he was speaking to a young girl, who looked painfully thin in her simple dress. “You’re a stand-in. A substitute. Do I have to spell it out for you?”
The girl’s eyes were rimmed with red, her pretty face blotched with tears. “Mason, I already told you,” she replied. “I’m not feeling well, so I’m not going to the hospital to donate blood today.”
“Not feeling well?” Mason Quinn let out a cruel laugh. He grabbed her chin, forcing her to meet his gaze. “Is that why you’re here, selling drinks? Or is it something else you’re selling, Vivian?”
Vivian Hart’s jaw tightened. With a sharp crack, her hand flew across his face.
“You’re a monster, Mason,” she spat, her voice trembling with rage. “I’ve paid my debts. We’re done. Now get away from me!”
Mason’s head snapped to the side from the blow, but the cold grin never left his face. “You don’t get to decide when we’re done,” he scoffed. “Did you forget? If it weren’t for my family’s engagement to yours three years ago, the Harts would’ve gone under. You want to walk away? Be my guest. But I wonder what your father would have to say about that.”
With that, he grabbed her arm and started dragging her toward his car. “If you want to keep playing the part of my fiancée, you’ll do as you’re told. Chloe needs your blood. It’s the only thing you’re good for, after all.”
A wave of utter despair washed over Vivian. She closed her eyes, defeated.
To her, it had always been this way. Three years ago, she’d believed he was her savior. She’d thought he truly cared. But it was all a lie. Mason had only seen her as a walking, breathing medicine cabinet for Chloe Zalton, the one he actually loved.
In the name of “treatment,” she had to go every month to donate blood for Chloe. And when she tried to put a stop to it, her own father slapped her for even bringing it up.
Just as Vivian was about to be pushed into the car, a cold, cutting voice sliced through the night. “Let her go.”
Mason froze, turning to face a woman whose beauty was as breathtaking as the steel in her gaze.
“Who are you?” Mason scowled. “This is a private matter.”
But when Vivian heard that voice, the world seemed to shift beneath her feet. It was a voice she recognized deep in her soul, a voice from a life she believed had vanished forever.
She looked up, her body rigid with disbelief. The face – so familiar, so regal, so achingly missed – sent a tremor through her heart.
A trembling hand reached out, her own face a mask of shock. Her lips parted, and a single, fragile word escaped, a name she’d only dared to whisper in her dreams.
“Sienna?” she mumbled. “Is that you?”
Sienna’s gaze softened as she looked at the broken girl before her. Vivian, her second sister, had been just fifteen when Sienna left. Now grown, she still carried that same spark in her eyes.
“It’s me, Vivian,” Sienna said, her voice a gentle balm. “I’m back.”
“Sis!”
Vivian ripped her arm from Mason’s grasp and threw herself into Sienna’s embrace, sobbing as if her heart would break.
All the years of pain, of loneliness, of quiet desperation, came pouring out. She clung to Sienna like a drowning girl to a lifeline, shaking with fear that this was all a dream, another cruel trick of her mind.
Sienna held her tight, stroking her back. Her voice was a steady, warm anchor in the storm.
“It’s okay,” she murmured. “I’m here now. I’m back, and I’m not going anywhere.”
Vivian cried until Sienna’s shoulder was soaked, finally pulling back with a sniffle of embarrassment, her eyes puffy and red.
“Is this real?” she whispered. “You’re really here? Am I still dreaming?”
Sienna’s heart ached. “It’s real, Vivian. I’m really back.” And she swore she would burn the world to the ground before she ever left her again.
Meanwhile, Mason, who had been ignored for so long, was now utterly confused. Sis? Vivian didn’t have a sister. She was the eldest… wasn’t she?
“Vivian, are you done with this melodrama?” he chimed in. “We’re leaving. Now.”
But before he could finish the sentence, another sharp smack echoed in the night air. Mason stumbled, his head whipping to the side.
Sienna had hit him hard, without holding back. She’d been listening to his vile performance, her fury coiled like a snake in her gut.
What a joke, Sienna thought. A substitute? Forced blood donations? What kind of sick, primetime drama is this?
Then Mason called out Vivian’s name, and Sienna strode forward. Though ten years had passed, she recognized Vivian instantly. Her pitiful, vulnerable look tugged at Sienna’s heart.
Bullying her family right in front of her? To Sienna, that was the last straw. Mason might as well have been asking for trouble.
“What are you doing? Do you have any idea who I am?” cried Mason. The slap had left him dazed, his cheek was numb and painful. “I’m Vivian’s boyfriend! Who do you think you are?”
Mason glared at the woman before him, but his bravado quickly faded. The woman standing there radiated a power that was genuinely terrifying. A cold dread crept over him.
“I’m her sister,” Sienna pulled Vivian behind her, her voice deadly calm. “And you just laid a hand on my family. So, tell me. Do you want to leave here walking, or crawling?”
Vivian sniffled, the fear instantly replaced by a surge of strength. Sienna was a fortress, and inside her walls, nothing could touch her.
“Sienna, I hate him,” she whimpered, clinging to Sienna’s arm. “He’s a bully.”
That was all Sienna needed to hear. She drove her foot into Mason’s stomach, sending him sprawling to the pavement again.
“You… you’ll pay for this!” Mason gasped, yet he could do nothing but scramble away.