Chapter 1

Eleanor Vance slid a polished mahogany box across the table. Inside, nestled on black velvet, was a passport, a driver' s license, and a set of credit cards. The face on the IDs was mine, but the name was not. Elias Vance.

"This is your new life, Ethan," she said, her voice calm and steady. "Ethan Miller is about to die a tragic, lonely death. Elias Vance will rise from his ashes."

I picked up the passport. The paper felt heavy, official. Elias Vance. It felt like a stranger's name on my tongue.

"The arrangements are made," Eleanor continued, her eyes holding mine. "A boating accident. The car is already at the marina. The boat is registered in your name. It will be found, splintered and empty. They will search for a body they will never find."

I nodded, my throat tight. I looked at the items in the box, the keys to my escape.

"Ethan Miller was a good man destroyed by hyenas," she said, her tone hardening. "Elias Vance will be the man who watches them starve."

Her words didn't offer comfort. They offered purpose. A cold, sharp purpose that cut through the fog of my pain.

"I' m ready," I said. The words came out as a whisper.

"Good," she said, a flicker of a smile on her lips. "Then let' s make sure Ethan Miller goes out with the proper farewell."

My mind flashed back to the beginning of the end. It started with my adoptive brother, Liam Stone. He was the golden child, the one my parents adored, the one they rescued from a troubled home and showered with everything I, their other adopted son, had to earn. I built a tech empire from the ground up, and they gave him a seat on the board.

He used that seat to embezzle millions, funding a lifestyle of excess and gambling. When the auditors started closing in, the family held a meeting. Not to discuss justice, but to decide who would take the fall.

My adoptive father, Richard Miller, a man whose approval I had chased my entire life, couldn't even look me in the eye. "Ethan, you're the face of the company. You're the strong one. You can handle this."

My adoptive mother, Katherine, clutched Liam' s arm, her eyes pleading with me. "Liam is not built for this kind of hardship. It would break him. You' ve always been so resilient, Ethan. Please, for your brother. For the family."

It wasn' t a request. It was a demand, wrapped in the guise of familial love I had always been starved for. They weren't asking me to save the company. They were asking me to sacrifice myself for the son they truly loved.

I looked for an ally, for just one person to stand with me. My eyes found my wife, Sarah. We had been married for ten years. She was my partner, my confidante.

"Sarah?" I asked, a thread of hope in my voice.

She wrung her hands, her gaze shifting to the expensive rug. "Ethan, think of the scandal. Think of our daughter, Mia. If you just... take responsibility, it can all be managed quietly. We can weather this. I' ll stand by you. We' ll get through it."

Her promise was a lie. I could see it in the way she avoided my eyes, in the slight tremor of her hand as she reached for her wine glass. She wasn' t standing with me; she was pushing me off the cliff.

The final blow came from my daughter, Mia. She was sixteen, and she worshipped her uncle Liam. He bought her expensive gifts, took her to concerts, and told her stories that painted him as a dashing rogue and me as a boring, work-obsessed drone.

She stood by Liam' s side, her arms crossed, her face a mask of teenage contempt. "Dad, Uncle Liam said it was just a mistake. Why are you making such a big deal out of it? You' re going to ruin everything."

Her words didn't just hurt. They shattered the last piece of my heart. She wasn't just my daughter; she was their daughter, their creation. They had poisoned her against me, just as they had poisoned everything else in my life.

That night, listening to their rehearsed pleas and seeing the cold calculation in their eyes, something inside me broke. It wasn't a loud, dramatic snap. It was a quiet, cold severance.

I looked at them all-my parents, my brother, my wife, my daughter. They weren't my family. They were a pack of wolves that had finished gnawing on my flesh and were now ready to pick my bones clean.

"Fine," I said, the word tasting like ash. "I'll do it."

The relief in the room was sickening.

The next day, I started selling off my personal assets, moving funds to an offshore account Eleanor Vance had helped me set up years ago after I' d made a significant donation to her foundation. She was the only person who saw the vultures circling.

The last time I saw Mia at home, she was scrolling through her phone, ignoring me. I walked over and stood in front of her.

"I' m heading out for a few days," I said.

She didn't look up. "Whatever. Are you going to sign the papers for my new car? Uncle Liam said you would."

I stared at the top of her head, at the daughter who looked at me and saw only an obstacle, an ATM. I didn' t feel anger anymore. I felt nothing. A vast, cold emptiness.

"No," I said quietly. "I'm not."

She finally looked up, her eyes flashing with annoyance. "What? Why not? You promised!"

"I never promised," I said. "Liam promised. Let him buy it for you."

I turned and walked away, leaving her sputtering in indignation.

My last conversation with Sarah was in our bedroom. She was packing a suitcase.

"I' m taking Mia to stay with my sister for a while," she said, not looking at me. "Until this all blows over."

"It's not going to blow over, Sarah. You know that."

She finally turned to me, her face a carefully constructed mask of sorrow. "Ethan, I do love you. I just... I need to protect Mia."

I looked into her eyes, searching for a single shred of the woman I had married. I found nothing. Only self-interest and a chilling capacity for betrayal. I saw her for what she was, not for what I had wanted her to be.

I didn't try to touch her. I didn't want to. The thought of her skin against mine was repulsive.

"Sarah," I said, my voice even. "I'm making a public announcement tomorrow. At the press conference."

Her eyes widened slightly with interest. "What kind of announcement?"

"You should come," I said, turning to leave the room. "The whole family should be there. It' s going to be a day to remember."