Chapter 1

My life split into two parts that day at the nationals.

Before, I was Sarah Miller, top rider at Sterling Meadows Equestrian Academy.

After, I was just... broken.

Chloe Davis and I were cornered.

Rocco, a rival stable owner, trapped us in the temporary stalls.

He was known for poaching riders, for sabotage.

Mr. Finch, our head trainer, was overseas.

Ethan Hayes and Liam Vance, Finch' s star students, my closest friends, found us.

Rocco smirked.

"You can take one," he said, his voice like gravel. "Only one."

Ethan and Liam looked at Chloe, then at me.

I saw the calculation in their eyes.

My heart pounded.

They chose Chloe.

"She' s... more delicate," Ethan mumbled, not meeting my gaze.

"Less experienced," Liam added, his face tight.

They walked away with Chloe, leaving me with Rocco.

Despair hit me, cold and sharp.

"We' ll come back for you, Sarah," Ethan called over his shoulder.

A hollow promise. I knew it then.

Rocco laughed, a low, chilling sound.

He wanted to break me, or my prize stallion, Comet.

Maybe a drugged feed, a loose board, an "accident."

His men moved closer.

Then, chaos.

Shouts. A blur of motion.

Men in dark suits, efficient, professional, appeared from nowhere.

They weren' t Rocco' s.

They took me.

I woke up on a plane, then in a room I hadn' t seen since I was a child.

Kingston Ranch, Montana.

My father' s empire. My secret.

The truth of my lineage was a shield I never knew I had.

My father, Marcus Kingston, had kept me safe, even from afar.

But the betrayal from Sterling Meadows, from Finch, Ethan, and Liam, it cut deeper than any physical threat.

It shattered me.