[The Red Trilogy 01] • Rising Sun

It's tough losing a sister.

It's even worse when you've lost them, and they're still alive.

But unfortunately, I know exactly how that feels.

My name is Gloria Protean. When I was five, my older sister, Grace, was taken from me. Growing up, I blamed myself. But I know better now. I'm an adult, twenty-three years old since last month. And one of the first female graduates from Aletheia University's criminal justice program.

So I'm well aware that it wasn't my actions that caused a group of corrupt psychopaths to hold my sister prisoner. She was a willing captive, of course, but that couldn't be helped.

Yet still, knowing that she was alive, and not really a part of my life, made the constant ache of her absence hard to swallow.

She wasn't brave, not like me. So she wouldn't stand up to him. Especially not now.

So I was going to have to do it for her. And if that meant I'd have to also become the first female detective on the local force, in order to gain access to the places I needed to go, then so be it. I could absolutely do this.