Prologue
BY THE TIME I WAS TWENTY-TWO, I already had many names.
Runaway Heiress.
Missing Empress.
Slacker Queen.
The titles filled me with guilt for abandoning my responsibilities, but after witnessing my parents die in the name of making immortality a reality, I suffered what the media called a ‘nervous breakdown’.
I went from being groomed to take my rightful place at Snowflake Corp to vanishing overnight.
The beauty of disappearing meant troubles struggled to find me.
But it also meant that when theydidfind me, no one was there to save me.
And I found myself hurled into the darkest destiny imaginable...
Chapter One
“ARE YOU COMING BACK ATALLin this lifetime?”
I sighed and inched away from the crowd of women. I knew answering my phone was a bad idea. “Frank, we’ve talked about this. I agreed to give you this number, but only for actual emergencies. Everything else, I don’t exist, got it?”
Frank Lampton—the MD, CEO, CFO, and basically king of Snowflake Corp groaned dramatically. “Rook, listen to me. We all know how hard it was on you when your parents—”
“Dissolved right in front of me?”
“Yes, well, they were playing with cryogenics and anti-aging compounds that—”
“Made their quest for immortality ensure they died far before their time?”
“I know it affected you, but you have responsibilities—”
“I was fifteen, Frank. I started those responsibilities when I was twelve. They yanked me out of school and my life was just another cog in their company. Forgive me if I no longer have the capacity to—”
“I’m not saying you had it easy. And I’m aware you’ve earned the right to be alone for a while, but...we need you here for more than the occasional signature. You’re the sole heir to everysubsidiary and enterprise. Your disappearance sent ripples through the corporate world and—”
“They’ll survive.” I cut him off for the fourth time, sick of the same ‘ole conversation. “Look, if you don’t have an emergency—if the labs haven’t blown up or the pill for everlasting life hasn’t been created, then please,please, leave me alone.”
Already, I felt the headache pressing. The sharp shooting pains behind my eyes. Ever sincethatday, I’d suffered the aftereffects of death, along with the knowledge that I might’ve been a fifteen-year-old child, but overnight, every asset, obligation, and untold secret patents that Snowflake Corp was involved in became mine.
So I did what any logical, broken teenager would do and got the hell out of there.
“Ladies, my, my, what a fabulous turnout!” A man’s voice crackled through the speaker system, floating with a rich baritone through the luxury garden. Whipping around, I scanned the crowd of women. Some pretty, some not so pretty, some in dresses, some in jeans. But all of us had one thing in common thanks to the pink invitation in our hands.
“I have to go, Frank.”
“No, wait—”
“Thank you so much for accepting our offer to attend the Ember Wellness Retreat Weekend. With our grand opening next month, you’re an integral part of helping us find the areas of improvement that may arise. Because your feedback is so valuable, the entire weekend is on us—including unlimited massages, beauty treatments, and access to the many hot pools and ice baths within the estate.”
Everyone smiled at each other, clutching their bags packed with the essentials for a weekend at a five-star spa.
My headache started to fade, knowing that the moment I hung up the phone, I would once again be a nobody. A twenty-two-year-old slacker who had no ambition, no agenda, and had successfully become one with the art of doing nothing.
That was how I’d ended up at the right place, at the right time to receive an invitation.
