Chapter 3

Jessica ended up in the hospital after her Blackwood Innovations stunt.

Minor injuries from being manhandled by security, plus a healthy dose of theatrical hysterics.

Damian Blackwood's legal team, probably wanting to avoid more public circus, sent an offer.

They'd drop the lawsuit for the drone, even cover her minor medical bills.

All she had to do was sign an NDA and a restraining order, agreeing to stay far away from Damian Blackwood and all his properties.

A gift. A golden ticket out of the mess she'd created.

Any sane person would have snatched it.

Not Jessica.

"Never!" she shrieked at her bewildered public defender, who relayed the story to us with a sigh. "He wants me to fight for him! Signing that would be admitting defeat! I'm no quitter!"

She wanted to maintain her "feisty heroine" image for Damian, even if he clearly saw her as a lunatic.

Mom and Dad looked at each other.

This was beyond anything they could fix, beyond any sacrifice they could make.

"Emily," Dad said quietly a few days later, "your mother and I... we've booked a cruise. A long one."

Distance. They needed distance. From Jessica, from the city, from the constant fear.

I understood. I was busy with college, trying to rebuild a semblance of a normal life, steeling myself for whatever Jessica did next.

Jessica, released from the hospital with a mountain of bills and the lawsuit still active, was furious.

"You're abandoning me!" she screamed at me over the phone when she found out about the cruise. "I'm your sister! I'm hurt! You're supposed to take care of me! Damian expects me to have family support!"

"No, Jessica," I said, my voice cold, devoid of the pity I once felt. "I'm busy. You're on your own."

I hung up before she could launch into another tirade.

She took to social media, posting vague, self-pitying rants about betrayal and ungrateful families.

They were largely ignored.

The world, it seemed, was not her captive audience.

My parents left. The apartment felt quieter, safer.

I focused on my studies, on building a future that didn't revolve around Jessica's destructive orbit.

I remembered the poison, the cold dread of our first death.

That memory was a shield, hardening my resolve.

Never again.