At seventeen, Kate watched her parents murdered by a gang. To protect her three younger siblings, she burned the family boat, took all the blame, and let everyone believe she was a thief and fraud. She gave each sibling away to safe families—trading her reputation for their lives. She then became an undercover agent, infiltrated the gang for three years, and put their parents' killers in prison. The cost: her health, and the right to ever appear before her siblings again.
Thirty years later, Grace—now a mayoral candidate—along with surgeon Evan and socialite Lisa, sued Kate for arson and child trafficking, demanding a forced memory extraction. As her memories played in court, they watched their seventeen-year-old sister wipe blood from fingerprints, lie to the gang boss, sell them off one by one, and walk into the rain alone.
The truth shattered the courtroom. Every simulation of keeping the family together ended in death. Kate's self-destruction was the only armor that kept all four children alive. She died peacefully in their arms. Her tombstone reads: Eldest Daughter, Sister, RiverDaughter. Grace was elected mayor and promised: no child in Greyport would ever have to destroy themselves to protect the ones they love.
