The sapphire ring sat on Yuna's palm like a curse disguised as beauty. Her grandmother's ring. Her mother's voice on the video. Austin's betrayal — like barbed wire wrapped around memory. Nothing was safe anymore—not history, not family, not even her own thoughts.
She stared at herself in the mirror, searching her face for clues. For signs of the girl she'd been before she was broken. But that girl was gone. Buried behind white hospital walls and forged files.
She fastened the ring onto her finger and whispered, "Time to finish what they started."
Thirty minutes later, she stood outside her mother's estate. Not the family mansion—the quiet lake house tucked away in Hudson Valley. The one no one was supposed to know about. She hadn't been here in years.
Last time, someone drugged her, confused her, and gently ushered her into a car with soft blankets and lies.
Now she came unannounced. Unforgiven.
Her mother answered the door in a robe and pearl earrings, as if nothing in the world could touch her. "Yuna?" she blinked. "What are you—"
Yuna stepped inside without permission. "I need answers."
Her mother's lips pressed into a line. "I suppose you do."
They sat in the parlor. Rain fell in streaks against the glass.
Yuna didn't waste time. "What is Operation Glass Dove?"
Her mother stiffened. "That name," she whispered, "was never supposed to reach your ears."
"It didn't," Yuna said. "It reached my life."
Her mother stood, crossed the room, and poured herself a drink. "Your father believed legacy was everything. That pain and silence were costs of survival. He didn't marry me because he loved me. He married me because I had a lineage that traced back to blood he could use."
"What does that mean?" Yuna demanded.
Her mother turned, glass in hand. "It means Glass Dove wasn't about you. It was about your children. Your future."
Yuna blinked. "What?"
"Victor believed that if he controlled your womb, your name, and your inheritance, he could create the ultimate dynasty. He wanted to pair you with someone he could manipulate—or destroy anyone you loved."
Yuna's hands shook. "He built a program around my body?"
Her mother nodded. "And when you rebelled? He initiated phase two: discreditation and sedation. Keep you beautiful. Maintain you docile. Keep you valuable."
"And you let him?" Yuna whispered.
Tears rimmed her mother's eyes. "I tried to fight him. That's why he shipped me off. That's why I disappeared from public life. Not illness—punishment."
Yuna swallowed. "He used you too."
"We were both glass doves," her mother said. "Beautiful. Breakable. And caged."
Back at Wolfe Tower, Alexander reviewed the lat intel from his legal team. Austin had moved assets from Wolfe Industries into a private fund—slowly, subtly, over the past year. Micro-transactions. Shell companies. A spiderweb designed to collapse from the inside.
If Alexander moved too fast, the stock would plummet. If he waited too long, the board would see him as weak. He picked up his phone. Dialed.
"David," he said when the line connected.
On the other end, David Winslow sounded amused. "You really must be desperate."
"I'm not calling for a truce," Alexander said. "I'm calling for leverage."
David was quiet. "Go on."
"Your name is still on the Eastin Holdings vault. I want access."
David scoffed. "Why would I help you?"
"Because if I fall, you're next. You think Elsa will save you? She's already building her own empire without your name attached."
Silence.
Then: "What's in it for me?"
"Protection," Alexander said. "And immunity."
David exhaled. "I want more than immunity."
"What do you want?"
"Proof that Yuna's not clean."
Alexander's voice turned deadly quiet. "You'll be disappointed," he said.
David laughed softly. "Everyone's dirty, Wolfe. The question is how deep they're buried."
Yuna returned that night with fire in her bones and her mother's confession on audio. She strode into Alexander's study and dropped the drive on his desk.
"I have proof," she said. "Glass Dove was never mine. It was his."
Alexander played the recording. His face remained still. But his hand curled into a fist.
"They made you a commodity," he said. "And I mistook you for a weapon."
"I've been both," Yuna whispered. "But never for them. Not again."
They stood in silence.
The rain had stopped.
Only the storm between them remained.
"Come with me," he said.
"Where?"
"To the place where this started."
They drove north in silence.
To the foundation where Alexander's mother first built her empire before Eastin Holdings swallowed it whole.
The property was abandoned. Weeds and glass. A graveyard of ambition.
But inside the remains of the boardroom, Alexander pulled up a loose floor tile.
Underneath: a lockbox.
Inside: two sealed envelopes.
He handed one to Yuna.
She opened it.
Inside:
A copy of the original Glass Dove contract.
Signed by her father.
And a letter from Alexander's mother.
> "If you're reading this, the girl has survived. Protect her, Alexander. She is not your enemy. She is your equal. And if the world burns for that, let it."
Yuna's breath caught.
"I think she loved you," she said quietly.
Alexander looked at her. "Then maybe she left me the one thing I never thought I'd find."
"What's that?"
"A reason to stop surviving. And start fighting for something real."
Back in Manhattan, Elsa watched the news feed from her secure server.
Yuna and Alexander photographed together at a private facility, uncovered by press drones.
Smiling.
United.
Alive!
She turned to Austin, cold fury in her eyes.
"You told me she'd fold."
Austin didn't flinch.
"She hasn't."
Elsa crossed the room and pulled a folder from her desk.
She held it out.
"Then release this."
Austin took it.
Opened it.
Inside: a forged death certificate for Alexander's mother.
Signed by the Eastins.
Filed by a Wolfe executive.
Backdated.
"Drop it anonymously," Elsa whispered. "And tell the world that both of them have been lying."