Child Years
Mia grew up with a truth she didn’t fully understand at first — she was the hidden half-sister of Catherine Smith. For years, her existence sat in the shadows, unspoken and unacknowledged. Everything changed the night Catherine’s parents were killed.
Mia was there, small and terrified, watching everything collapse around her. Instead of being taken to safety, she was swept away by the man responsible: Josh Harris. To the world, he was a murderer. To Mia, he became the only figure she had left.
But Josh never intended to be a father. He shaped Mia with cold purpose, raising her more like an asset than a child. From a young age she was taught how to survive, how to fight, how to manipulate, and how to disappear. He trained her in his ways — the violence, the strategy, the ruthlessness — until Mia could no longer separate who she was from what he’d molded her into. While Catherine lived her life unaware of Mia’s existence, Mia grew up defined by Catherine’s tragedy, shaped by the hands that caused it, becoming a weapon forged from someone else’s loss.
Teenage Years
At Myrefall High School, Mia tried to live something close to a normal life.That’s where she met the gang, Nathan “Nate” Carter first, followed by Noah Jones, Erik Blackridge, Thomas “Woody” Woods, and finally Anthony “Ant” Young. They grew up together, stuck together, and made it through the entirety of high school side by side. For a while, it almost felt like she belonged.
That was until The last year of high school when she met Olivia Harris. They clicked instantly — complete opposites, day and night — but inseparable all the same. Where Mia was guarded and calculating, Olivia was reckless and magnetic. Their bond burned fast and bright.
Olivia, however, fell in with the wrong people. Criminals. Dangerous ones. And without meaning to — or perhaps without caring — she dragged Mia with her. When things went wrong and they tried to escape the mess they’d landed in, Olivia made a choice.
She ran.
She left Mia behind to “hold them back.” She never went for help. She never came back. Mia fought her way through most of them, relying on instincts carved into her since childhood — but the last one caught her. A brutal blow to the head left her unconscious, hovering on the edge of death. She slipped into a coma that lasted two years. When she finally woke, the world had moved on without her — and not kindly. Olivia was dead, killed a year earlier during a bank robbery gone wrong. Mia’s adopted sister had also passed away. And instead of relief or justice, Mia was met with charges: assault and attempted murder against the very people who had tried to kill her. The only person who saw it all, who could’ve cleared her name was Olivia. And Olivia was gone. The only person left willing to stand beside her was her best friend, Nathan Carter. He spoke for her when no one else would. He fought for her when the outcome was already decided. But words weren’t enough. There was no proof. No witness. No mercy.
Everyone knew it.
Mia was a lost cause in their eyes. That didn’t stop Nate from trying. She was bailed out and returned home, but freedom brought no relief. Josh was waiting — bitter, volatile, cruel in a way only he could be. He tore into her with the same poison over and over, demanding to know why she survived when her adopted sister, Carrey, hadn’t. Something inside Mia finally fractured. She used all of the training to use. She became the very weapon he wanted to her, although instead of his enemies, the weapon was aimed at him and only him. Mia killed him. In the very same living room where he ripped away her childhood.
The police found her quickly. Mia didn’t run. She didn’t deny it. She pleaded guilty.
Mia served her time in prison — another chapter of her life decided by someone else’s choices, another punishment for surviving.
When she was released, Mia was twenty-four.
Two Years Ago
That same evening, she walked into a bar and met Lucas Ramsey.
Despite her guarded silence and closed-off nature, they clicked. Lucas had a presence that filled the room — warm, steady, alive in a way Mia had forgotten people could be. Slowly, he filled the hollow place inside her chest.
They married in less than a year.
For the first time in her life, Mia found peace — as a Ramsey.
And just like everything else she loved, it was torn away.
The same man responsible for Olivia’s death returned, leaving devastation in his wake. A massacre in the nursery — the room meant for their daughter. Lucienne. The child Mia was carrying. The future she had dared to believe in.
Mia remembered what it felt like to see red.
To want blood.
So she acted.
She hunted down Todd Bryan — an abusive, hateful man — and killed him the same way he had destroyed her husband and her best friend. She felt no remorse. No hesitation.
Not until the door opened.
Not until his wife stepped inside, holding their two-year-old daughter.
A child just a year older than Lucienne was.
And in that moment, the weight of everything Mia had lost — and everything she had become — came crashing down on her.
When Anabelle stepped into her home, she was met with a figure in a mask standing amid blood-streaked walls. The room felt frozen, unreal. Their eyes met.
For a split second, Anabelle didn’t scream.
There was relief in her gaze.
Without a word, Anabelle gathered her stuff into her arms, and turned away. She walked out of the house.
She left Mia there. Alone in the wreckage. Alone with Anabelle’s now-dead husband.
They found him a week later. Anabelle had an alibi in her sister and her workplace, a timeline that held firm under scrutiny. There was nothing to tie her to the scene. Nothing that could be made to stick. The case was cut cold.
Filed away. Forgotten by everyone who hadn’t lived inside it. And Mia? Mia was left to walk free.
Not forgiven. Just unpunished — carrying the weight of what she’d done, and what she’d survived, alone.

---

---

---

---