Right after the divorce, my husband hugged his mistress and mocked her: “Now you’re just an old rag!” But 5 minutes later, 10 Rolls-Royces arrived and someone shouted: “Get in the car, ma’am!” The surprise was total, the end of it all came quickly.

Mrs. Higgins suggested I clear out my father’s old study to find peace, and there I discovered a hidden wooden box. Inside was a sapphire butterfly brooch identical to mine and an old cassette tape labeled “For my daughter.”

I played the tape and heard my mother’s voice recording a message in a moment of great danger twenty years ago. She spoke of a secret contract between our family and the Mendoza family that required a child to be sacrificed.

Suddenly, the recording captured the sound of a door being kicked in and my mother’s final scream before the tape went silent. My heart pounded with horror as I realized my mother was murdered by someone she knew.

Julian arrived to comfort me and promised to help find the truth, but then his uncle, Robert Reed, arrived from London. Robert claimed that Julian and I were actually half siblings according to a secret DNA test he had performed.

The news shattered me because I had started to develop feelings for Julian, and now a blood barrier stood between us. We tried to remain professional while planning a trap for our common enemy, a man named Marcus Mendoza.