Natalia Lynch was everything Teddy Lynch ever wanted in a child—and that terrified the rest of the family.

She was the female version of him in every possible way: his blonde hair, bright and untamed, the same piercing green eyes that could freeze a person in their tracks, and his sharp, angular features that carried a cold, calculating edge. There was no denying it—when they looked at her, they saw him. Teddy’s dark legacy, inherited and mirrored in the body of his only daughter.

Teddy was proud of her. He saw in Natalia what he had always wanted in himself—a sharp mind, a ruthless edge, and an ability to control a room without even trying. She was the one who could hold her ground in the middle of a storm, the one who never backed down from a fight, the one who always made things happen. In his eyes, she was the perfect reflection of him.

But to the rest of the family, she was a reminder of the fear they had spent years trying to escape. Marie saw it when Natalia walked into a room, her gaze colder than anyone else’s, her voice sharp like a knife. She saw it when Natalia lost her temper and everyone fell silent, bracing for something they couldn’t control.

Ollie and Sean, too young to fully understand but old enough to feel the tension, clung to Shannon now. They avoided their sister, unsure of what she might do. Joey, once the boldest of them all, had stopped challenging her. Even he saw the dangerous potential in her—the raw power that made Teddy love her so much.

And Shannon, Natalia’s only sibling who had ever tried to hold her ground, was slowly pulling away. There were moments, rare ones, when Shannon looked at Natalia with something close to fear, like she wasn’t sure who her sister had become.

They could all see it. The way Teddy looked at her with admiration, the way she reminded him of himself.

But no one spoke of it, not aloud. Not ever. Because the truth was too terrifying: Natalia was becoming her father. And no one knew how to stop it.