Evertt walked up the grand staircase. His boots hit the marble steps with heavy, angry thuds. He needed to get to his study. He had military contracts to review, and his mind was a mess.

Before he reached the top landing, he heard a small scuffling sound behind him.

"No! Let me go!" a tiny voice cried out.

Evertt stopped and turned around. Little Peggy had ripped her hand away from the butler's grip. She ran up the stairs as fast as her short legs could carry her. She crashed into Evertt's legs and grabbed the fabric of his suit pants with both hands.

Evertt looked down. His dark eyebrows pulled together. He did not like children. He did not like being touched. But he did not push her away.

He slowly bent his knees and crouched down to her level. He kept his voice low so he would not scare her more. "Why are you not going to the side wing with your mother?"

Peggy sniffled loudly. Tears ran down her round cheeks. "I don't want you to be mad at Mommy, Uncle Evertt."

Evertt let out a heavy sigh. He reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a clean, white silk handkerchief. He wiped the tears off the little girl's face. His movements were stiff and awkward.

"Peggy," Evertt said, looking directly into her watery eyes. "Tell me the truth. How did the doll break?"

Peggy looked down at the stairs. She twisted the fabric of his pants in her hands. She peeked over her shoulder at the bottom of the stairs, where Jada was being held back by security. Then, she looked back at Evertt.

"I broke it," Peggy whispered. Her voice was shaking. "I was running in the garden yesterday. I tripped on a rock and fell on it. It broke."

Evertt's eyes narrowed. The muscles in his neck went tight. "Then why did you say Irena broke it?"

Peggy dropped her chin to her chest. She squeezed her eyes shut. "Mommy told me to. She said if I told you the bad lady broke it, you would make the bad lady go away."

The words hit Evertt like a physical punch to the gut.

He stood up slowly. He looked down the stairs at Jada. His eyes were so cold they looked dead.

Jada saw his face. Her knees gave out. She collapsed onto the marble floor, sobbing hysterically.

Evertt turned to the butler, who had run up the stairs behind the child. "Contact the Le Rosey boarding school in Switzerland immediately," Evertt ordered. His voice was completely devoid of emotion. "Arrange for Peggy to be enrolled tomorrow. She leaves tonight."

Jada screamed from the bottom of the stairs. "No! Evertt, please! She is my baby!" She tried to crawl up the steps, but two security guards grabbed her arms and held her down.

Evertt ignored the screaming. He turned around and walked the rest of the way up the stairs. He went straight to his study and slammed the heavy oak doors shut behind him. The loud bang echoed through the house.

Inside the study, the air felt too thin. Evertt walked straight to the liquor cabinet. He grabbed a crystal decanter and poured three fingers of amber whiskey into a glass. He drank it straight down. The alcohol burned his throat and settled hot in his stomach, but it did not burn away his thoughts.

He walked over to his massive desk and sat down. He unlocked the bottom drawer and pulled out a thick manila folder. It was the old investigation report on Irena Frost and the Hendricks family.

He opened the folder. He started reading the pages again. He read every single word.

He read about her father's gambling debts. He read about her uncle's failing businesses. Then, his eyes stopped on a specific paragraph. It detailed a proposed marriage contract between Irena and Arthur Vance.

Evertt's stomach clenched. He knew Arthur Vance. The man was a monster. He had a reputation in the underground clubs for extreme violence against women.

Evertt leaned back in his leather chair. He stared at the ceiling. A terrible, uncomfortable thought crawled into his brain.

He had always believed Irena drugged him because she wanted his money and his status. He thought she was a greedy, manipulative snake.

But what if she wasn't?

What if she trapped him because it was the only way to escape being sold to a murderer?

The realization made his chest ache. He looked at the empty whiskey glass on his desk. What if the story was more complicated than he had believed? He pushed the thought away, his jaw tightening. It did not change the fact that she had drugged him. But for the very first time, a fracture appeared in his absolute certainty.

Irena walked into her guest bedroom and pushed the door shut. She turned the brass lock until it clicked into place. She let out a long breath. The muscles in her shoulders finally relaxed. Dealing with Jada and Evertt was exhausting.

She walked over to the large vanity mirror. As she opened the top drawer of the vanity, something caught her eye.

Pushed far into the back corner of the drawer was a small, dark red velvet box.

Irena frowned. She reached in and pulled the box out. The velvet was worn at the edges. The memory of its origin surfaced in her mind. A week before the wedding, the original Irena had wandered into a dusty antique shop while trying to plan her escape. She had bought this ring for a few copper coins because it looked strangely familiar, then tossed it into the drawer and forgot about it. She opened the lid.

Inside, resting on black satin, was a ring. It was made of dull silver, holding a smooth, black obsidian stone. The silver band was carved with strange, ancient patterns.

Irena's heart stopped beating for a full second. Her pupils dilated. She knew this ring.

It was her grandmother's ring from her past life. It was a family heirloom she had worn every day before she died and woke up in this novel.

Her fingers trembled as she picked it up. The metal felt ice-cold against her skin. The weight of it was exactly as she remembered. This was not a copy. This was her ring. It had crossed space and time with her soul.

In her past life, it was just an old piece of jewelry. But in this world, things were different. A wild, impossible idea sparked in her brain.

She walked quickly to the writing desk. She picked up a sharp metal letter opener. She did not hesitate. She pressed the sharp edge against the tip of her left index finger and sliced.

A sharp sting shot through her hand. A drop of bright red blood welled up from the cut.

She held the ring under her finger and let the drop of blood fall onto the black obsidian stone.

The blood did not roll off. The stone absorbed the red liquid instantly. A faint, pulsing red light glowed from inside the black rock.

Suddenly, the room spun. Irena felt a violent pull behind her navel. Her vision went completely black.

When she opened her eyes again, she was not in the bedroom.

She was standing in an endless space. The ground beneath her feet felt solid, but it looked like gray glass. The air was perfectly still. It was neither hot nor cold. A thick, gray mist formed walls in the distance, creating an area roughly the size of a massive football stadium.

Irena gasped. The sound echoed slightly. She closed her eyes and focused her mind on her physical body.

Instantly, the gray space vanished. She was back in the bedroom, standing by the desk. The cut on her finger had stopped bleeding.

She looked down at the ring. Her chest heaved as she dragged air into her lungs. A massive wave of pure, unfiltered joy crashed over her.

It was a spatial storage ring. In a world without modern shipping containers or refrigerated warehouses, this was the ultimate cheat code.

She needed to test the physical limits. She picked up a heavy bronze paperweight from the desk. She held it in her hand and thought the word store.

The bronze weight vanished from her palm.

She closed her eyes and looked into the ring's space. The paperweight was sitting on the gray glass floor.

She thought the word retrieve.

The heavy metal instantly reappeared in her hand, the weight pulling her arm down slightly.

Irena started pacing across the bedroom carpet. Her mind was racing a mile a minute. She tested everything. She stored books, teacups, and even a heavy wooden chair. Everything vanished and reappeared perfectly.

She realized something else. The cup of tea she had left on the table yesterday was still steaming hot when she pulled it out. Time inside the space was completely frozen.

Food would never rot. Ice would never melt.

Irena walked over to the large window. She looked out at the sprawling Barton estate. Her eyes burned with ambition.

With this ring, she did not need to rent expensive warehouses. She did not need to hire transport wagons that Evertt's men could track. She could move massive amounts of goods completely undetected. She could build her capital in secret.

The two-year plan she had written in her notebook was suddenly too slow. She could do it in six months.

She slid the silver ring onto the pinky finger of her left hand. The dark stone looked striking against her pale skin.

She turned away from the window and walked to the massive oak closet. She pushed aside the expensive, flashy dresses. She found a simple, dark navy wool dress. It was plain and unnoticeable.

She pulled the dress off the hanger. She was not going to sit in this room anymore. She was going to the capital's commercial district today. It was time to start building her empire.