Helena Ward left the house that morning with a familiar thought in mind: another ordinary morning, a few meetings, a few reports. She had spent over twenty years in the US Army Criminal Investigation Bureau exposing lies and dismantling the most dangerous criminal networks. Helena thought she had seen it all. She was wrong. A call at dawn tore everything apart. Her sister—Emily Carter—was found motionless in a muddy ditch outside Arlington. When the paramedics described …

Helena Ward woke that morning expecting nothing more than another ordinary day. Instead, it began with a phone call that shattered her life.
Her younger sister, Emily Carter, had been discovered barely alive in a muddy ditch on the outskirts of Arlington. By the time Helena reached the hospital, paramedics had already warned her: this was no accident. Emily had suffered brutal head trauma, multiple broken ribs, and deep wounds on her hands and arms—the unmistakable signs of someone who had fought desperately to survive.

In the ICU, Helena almost didn’t recognize her. Emily lay motionless beneath a web of tubes and monitors, her skin pale, her breathing shallow and mechanical. The woman Helena had grown up protecting looked fragile, almost already gone.

Helena clasped her sister’s hand and leaned close, her voice steady despite the storm inside her chest.
“I’m here. You’re not alone. I’m not going anywhere.”

For a fleeting second, Emily’s eyelids fluttered open. Her lips trembled, struggling to form words. Then, in a whisper so faint it was nearly lost to the machines, she spoke a name.

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