Alina’s chest tightened, the weight of Valerian’s words pressing down on her like a physical force. Her mother’s debt ends with her. The thought was horrifying and yet strangely precise. She had always known her life was tangled with secrets—dark, dangerous, and buried—but nothing could have prepared her for this.

Her eyes darted around the chamber. Screens flickered with images she recognized: her family, the Sterling Tower, files with her mother’s signature—old contracts, ...