The Secret First Lady: From Scorned Wife To National Obsession

"Ma'am, all hostile units positioned along the eastern front have been fully eliminated."

Across the battlefield, the smoke from spent gunpowder still lingered, while the fading rumble of the final blast drifted upward and signaled the close of another brutal conflict.

Standing on top of the armored vehicle, Ryann Sullivan surveyed the aftermath, and her black combat uniform was covered in layers of dust mixed with dried blood from the fighting.

Raising her arm, she brushed the blood from her cheek, and her eyes moved slowly across the ground that had only just returned to an uneasy silence.

"Begin clearing the area and record every casualty," she said, and her voice sounded strained yet unyielding. "We will pull out in one hour."

After she climbed down from the vehicle, her second-in-command stepped forward and placed a freshly decrypted file into her hands.

She accepted the file without concern at first, but her movement stopped the moment she read what was inside.

"Has this information been verified?" she asked, and her tone wavered in a way she could not fully conceal.

"The genetic comparison shows a ninety-nine point ninety-seven percent match. Your twin sister has been located in Elessall."

Ryann crushed the document in her fist, and the paper bent under the pressure of her grip.

Long before this moment, fifteen years had passed since Gabriela Sullivan vanished during a violent upheaval, and Ryann had spent those years scouring half the world for her missing twin.

Once an orphan with nothing to her name, she had risen to command a mercenary organization feared across nations, and the hope of finding her only family had always pushed her forward.

At last, that long pursuit had reached its end.

"Get the helicopter ready," she said, and she ripped the epaulet from her shoulder before throwing it toward her second-in-command. "I will handle this personally."

"Ma'am, this is extremely risky. Elessall? That country is beyond our control, and—"

Before he could finish, Ryann cut him off without hesitation. "This directive stands."

Exactly an hour later, she flew the helicopter herself beyond the border, leaving her formidable forces behind as she slipped into Elessall's airspace unnoticed.

Intelligence reports claimed that Gabriela had been taken in by a wealthy household and was supposed to be living in a privileged district.

Instead, the coordinates led her straight into the poorest and most decayed section of Gansborough.

Without waiting for the rotors to slow fully, Ryann leapt from the cockpit and hit the ground running.

A deep crease formed between her brows when she took in the area around her.

All around her, crooked shacks threatened to collapse, heaps of rotting trash lined the paths, and a foul smell clung heavily to the air.

Nothing about this place matched the life of an adopted daughter of a rich family was supposed to have.

Had the intelligence failed her? Or was there something else at play?

Without warning, a woman's scream tore through the silence from somewhere deep within