Ashes to Crown

In 1947, the venerable French Du Pont family and the prominent British business house of Black signed a secret marriage alliance agreement: should the heir of either party to the alliance fall vacant for any reason, the breaching party would be required to transfer 30% of the equity in its core family industries. Edmund, the illegitimate son of the Black family, was secretly adopted into the Du Pont family under the terms of this agreement. Lurking for three decades under the identity of the ""second son"", he quietly eroded the family's power while plotting a complete takeover. Five years ago, Edmund exploited the engagement between Seraphina, the sole heir of the Du Pont family, and Julian, the second son of the Black family. In collusion with Julian and his mistress Emily, he orchestrated a cliffside car crash that left Seraphina presumed dead, intending to seize the entirety of Du Pont's assets on the pretext of a ""breach of the marriage alliance"". Having narrowly escaped death, Seraphina lay low for five years with the aid of Raven, a mysterious organization. She returned to the Black Group under the alias Ella Knight, a low-ranking assistant — and so begins a story of vengeance and truth-seeking, rising anew from the ashes.