The heat of the kitchen never frightened Elena. It steadied her. It gave her something honest—fire that responded to skill, not emotion. Oil that hissed only when it should. Steel that yielded only to precision. In that space, nothing lied.

Diane, polished and sharp, radiating entitlement. Vanessa beside her, bored, scrolling her phone like the world owed her attention.

Diane didn’t greet me. Didn’t ask how I was.

She just smirked.

“Well. Looks like you finally made something of yourself.”

I stopped a few steps away. “What do you want?”

Vanessa sighed. “Relax. We’re here about an opportunity.”

Opportunity.

They still thought they had power over me.

Because they were living in my grandmother’s estate.

They just didn’t know it was mine.

Chapter 2: The Demand