My sister walked into my wedding wearing a white bridal dress

Eleanor Sterling looked remarkably alive. Time had etched fine lines around her eyes and mouth, but her bearing was regal, her posture unbroken by decades of exile.

"My precious girls," Eleanor choked out, dropping the lantern to the flagstone floor and pulling Celeste and me into a crushing, desperate embrace. Her arms were strong, smelling of the alpine cedar and rain that had haunted my memories. "I have waited twenty-four years to hold you again."

"You left us," I cried against her shoulder, angry tears mingling with relief. "You left us with that monster!"

"I had to draw his hunters away from you," Eleanor said, pulling back to look into our eyes, cupping my face with her trembling, weathered hands. "If I had taken you with me, Nicholas would have hunted us to the ends of the earth and killed all three of you to spite me. The only way you could survive was if he believed you were under Victoria’s corrupt, harmless thumb until you came of age."

"He's in the house right now," I said urgently, showing her the encrypted drive. "He gave us thirty minutes to surrender the estate, or he blows Elmwood Hill to pieces. Mia is inside buying us time."

"Mia," Eleanor murmured, her eyes softening with deep maternal pride. "My brave, wounded girl. She was always the one who bore the heaviest burden of his shadow."

Eleanor turned toward the rusted iron workbench at the back of the greenhouse. She swept aside a thick curtain of dried herbs to reveal a modern, glowing satellite communications terminal running off a silent portable lithium battery.

"Did you really think I came back empty-handed?" Eleanor asked, a sharp, fierce smile touching her lips. "I spent the last two decades building an alliance with the European Financial Crimes Unit. We have been waiting for Nicholas to step onto American soil for ten years. The moment he re-entered this jurisdiction, his diplomatic immunity dissolved."

"He has armed men covering the perimeter," Celeste warned. "And remote detonation switches for the gas lines."

"Those gas lines were disconnected three hours ago by federal marshals," Eleanor revealed calmly. "The men surrounding this house are not his mercenaries anymore. They were replaced before midnight. The only person Nicholas Sterling is commanding right now is his own delusion."

Eleanor took the thumb drive from my hand and slotted it into the terminal. The screen flashed bright blue as millions of encrypted transaction logs began streaming onto the secure server.