The Plot Twist Even I Didn’t See Coming: Maureen Seward

We’re diving into 2026 with a post full of Spoilers!!!

If you haven’t read all four books in the Assassin’s Legacy Series, this is your opportunity to bounce before you read something you will regret, because I want to talk about the building of Maureen Seward. And be warned—this was much longer than I anticipated.

Once upon a time, Maureen was dead. Like dead-dead. If you’ve read the full OG manuscript, you’re going to call me a liar. And that is fair. She was alive in that one, but completely useless. Tell me I’m lying…

Fast forward to the Assassin’s Legacy. We meet Aeron and Decius, motherless. When I originally wrote the book–she was dead. I already had a lot of characters and it’s not like it wouldn’t add some trauma to their backstory. It wasn’t until was going through revisions that a conversation between Mr. Seward and Aeron on the way back from Ernie’s garage sparked and idea worse than death–exile.

From The Assassin’s Legacy - Chapter 7:

“Besides, no one will come looking for me if I’m not there. I’m not that important. I’m an unclaimed child—soon to be a name on a hit list for SERE training.”

“You’re my flesh and blood—as long as you breathe, someone will always be looking for you, claimed or not.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“It means that you can’t just run away from this life, Aeron!” He slammed his hand down on the steering wheel.

“Why should I have to sacrifice what I want?”

“And what is it that you want?” No malice tainted his words, only genuine curiosity. What did she want? Life at the garage with Ernie and Rita? She found them because she couldn’t stand to be with her father. Life in the Legacy? She thrived there with Decius, Luke, and Shannon—but it came at the price of working under her father; of constantly failing no matter how hard she tried. She never failed at the garage.

“I don’t know,” she admitted.

“We’ve all made sacrifices.” His voice softened as they turned toward the highway. “It’s the price of this life.”

“What have you ever given up?” she spat. A thick silence followed her words, and she ignored the sweat that formed on her brow. She looked over, but darkness swallowed his face. “Dad—” she tried to rectify herself, but his answer was barely a whisper.

“Some sacrifices must remain unspoken, Aeron, or they lose their value.”

In these final words I knew—his wife was alive. Alive, but the price of the was that he could never be with her again. Evil, I know.

When I had decided to change Mr. Seward from our main antagonist to Aeron’s undercover protector, I had to reevaluate the relationship between him and his wife. I knew with this change, along with keeping her mother alive, that Aeron’s parents were deeply in love and that there would be nothing he wouldn’t have done for her. That motivation began to color all of his intentions and interactions, even if I didn’t realize it yet.

Originally, the idea was that they had saved Maureen, but to keep her safe there could be no contact. She was overseas in a safe house living her best life as they fought to keep their heads above water. It wasn’t until Sin that the full picture of what she was doing with her second–or third or fourth—chance really formulated. We can thank my editor of that book for her support and constant question of What if?

Sin was a complicated book to write. It was the first time I stepped outside of Legacy in ten years. As a pantser, I never know exactly what is going to happen in the books. I literally follow the characters and am jumped scared the same as you. I vividly recall sitting in my make-shift office listening to Taylor Swift on repeat when the complicated question of who took Luke surfaced. It couldn’t just be Rosemary. I needed to figure out who she was working for. The idea it was Maureen floated into my mind. It could work, but was it too out of left field? Was it too predictable? There was zero history on her except she 'died' in a car accident, and that I knew as the author she hadn't.

I decided to run the problem by my editor, and when I asked who do we think Rosemary answering to she said: Hear me out. What if it’s their mother?

It was the confirmation I needed and the entire plot line for the rest of the series dropped into place, as if it was just waiting for me to ask the right question. Did I know she was going to be as twisted as she turned out to be? Not at all. But giving my characters the room to run allowed for her to step out of the shadows and into something much darker.

This is also when the multi-generational conflict really took shape. I knew things had happened, I wrote lines I felt in my gut had to be there but couldn’t explain why—until that moment. Honestly that entire book felt like a fever dream of genius moments as the storylines revealed themselves to me.

By the end of Storm we all hated Maureen, and there was no love lost for my readers when Mason handled business. But as the author, I could feel his pain—Izz’s pain. I’d established this fierce protective nature of Maureen coupled with this moral compass of a woman which we had yet to see. I’d also introduced two new characters who are set to be Katherine’s enemies, but didn’t seem all that dangerous, and I wanted the readers to know—they are dangerous.

Before I finished Storm, I realized I needed to write a prequel. The concept was a novella. A quick look into the life of Maureen, give the readers context on Mike and Oliver so they would know what Katherine was up against, and introduce Mason and Storm.

What I didn’t realize would happen was that Maureen would pour her soul out on those pages, and for the first time while writing I had a goal outside of just telling the story. I had an intention as an author to make my readers feel something specific.

It’s no secret writing is it’s own brand of magic. The ability to make a person feel something—joy, anger, sadness—simply through the prose I’ve put on a page is nothing short of spellwork. I know I’ve done my job when readers tell me they felt something. And I work hard to hit those emotionally beats in the plot as authentically as possible.

As Maureen revealed her story I had a new goal: to make sure the readers sympathized with Maureen, because all villains were once kids with big dreams and most villains were once a child who had the adults responsible for them let them down. Did I know it would be as dark and traumatizing as it was? I had a inkling.

I realized several things while writing Alliance when it came to Maureen’s character development. First of all, the trauma she inflicted on her kids was not by choice, but deeply ingrained in her, and some of it completely out of her control. As someone who is working through healing the generational trauma of her own maternal line, I felt for Maureen, and for her mother (well not terribly so, but enough).

So let’s talk about Charlotte. Charlotte was a woman in a man’s field who had beat the odds in the 80s. She was at the top of her game when she became accidentally pregnant, and everything she worked for was slipping away. As with all my characters, I don't actually knowanything about them until they step on the page and start talking. I thought Charlotte would just be distant. I didn't know she was going to be cruel. When I was writing her, I tried to figure what made her that way, when she clearly had the capabilities to love deeply like she did for Oliver.

When it came down to it, I realized she suffered silently with postpartum depression. Being a highly driven woman in an intense, violent world, she handled it the only way she knew how to in order to survive. As mother, I’ve felt the struggle between your dreams and your family. That fear of putting your life on hold while the world will pass you by—and it does.

The world continues to spin as you pause, shifting your focus to the pieces of you now out in the world. But that just allows for other and even better opportunities to come into your orbit. But in Charlotte’s case, a few more years could mean the difference of life and death. Of power. (But Libby! What about her cheating ass and who is their father??) Charlotte was by no means a redeemable character. I hated her. But she lived the real life struggles of many moms—just in a very rich and dangerous place—and I wanted to touch on that, and the impact it had on Maureen's view on motherhood, both going from Charlotte to June, and then becoming a mother herself.

Why did Maureen’s father hate her? Because her mother did. Well to be fair, he didn’t hate Maureen. He just never invested any time in cultivating a relationship with her the way he did with Oliver. And as the head of Hale Security, his inclinations were always business oriented, and if his wife said his child was bad for the business, then they took care of it. She obviously had good instincts if Oliver was perfectly behaved and Maureen was not. Is that cruel? 100%. But that is reality a lot of children face, rich or not.

Now, did I want to open the book with the murder of the woman who cared for Maureen and make Maureen’s first kill as traumatic as possible? Yes. Yes I did. Let’s talk about June. When Maureen revealed to me in Storm that she was in fact a Hale, I was just as shocked as you. Jaw to the floor, gasp and all. I had no idea of the complexities I would be diving into in Alliance with that information. But I ran with it because I’ve learned to trust the process. Now how the hell did that work? Well, I wrote a whole book to figure that out.

I needed to figure out how she ended up on Legacy's doorstep, and I knew the loss of her caregiver, and the disdain of her parents would drive her straight there. I also knew she needed to have her first kill before she got there. Why? Because Maureen never wanted this life, but she did belong in it, and once she had blood on her hands there would be no going back for her. June knew that Maureen's life would never be her own, and try as she might, Maureen would eventually have to go back. June ensured Maureen had a loving foundation, but also a skillful one. June ensured no matter what, Maureen would be protected.

Now lets talk about Mike and Oliver. I knew Oliver was important to her, and her tie to keep Hale alive. In Storm, when she tells Eileen and Izz what happened to Oliver’s family, the pain in her was raw. Oliver was her lifeline she just couldn’t get to. We see more of this, and exactly what happened to Oliver’s in family and how Maureen ended up on his shit list in Reaper.

Mike, however, was completely unexpected. He was an ass in Storm, and I tried to keep that energy. But wouldn’t you know it, the man was in love with Maureen. I did not see that coming, and because we are hearing the story from Maureen, her love for him is what we get to experience. I’ll be honest: I lowkey have fallen in love with this version of Mike, too. And I do feel some type of way in that final scene of Alliance with her and Mike. He plays a pivitol part throughout her life, her connection to who she was before June died, and for that first taste of love of someone who wasn't family. However, his betrayal (can we even call it that?) seals her fate with Legacy and sparks her thirst for revenge.

Speaking of love, we can’t talk about Mike’s impact on pushing her for vengeance without talking about Andrew. As with Mike, we met Andrew when he was also kinda an ass. He was not the greatest father, and had very little emotional connection to his children, which we learn is intentional. But when he stepped onto the page in Alliance, this man was a sweet, smooth talking, hottie and Maureen was instantly smitten. Andrew wasn’t the reason she joined the Legacy, but he was certainly a reason she stayed. What happened to him between Alliance and Legacy to turn him into a cruel father? Ohhh… you’ll have to wait for that one.

We’ve got a few more people we need to talk about when discussing the development of Maureen, because she, like us, is the sum of the experiences and people in her life. Some will have to wait until after Reaper—there is still so much more story to tell—but we can talk about Francis, Seamus, Eileen, and Katherine (well, just a little).

Francis Wayward. The fatherly figure we cannot believe raised Elijah. From all aspects, it would seem that Francis would be the loving caring, present father. As the author I can confirm this. He was as present as he could be while leading the Legacy. But sometimes loss and trauma cannot be loved away, and the loss of Elijah’s sisters really left a hole in him nothing could fill.

But for Maureen, Francis was safety. He was a breath of fresh air—the Legacy showing her that she could still belong in the world that called to her, but in a better capacity. To be a good guy. (Yes, I realize this is a controversial take on my morally gray assassins, but just like we believe our military are the good guys—the Legacy are the good guys. This is a hill I will die on.) Francis provided Maureen with focus and purpose when her alternative was to return to a family that wanted her dead or run. He was the mentor she needed after June died.

Now the found family in the Legacy was the turning point for Maureen. There was Francis, Seamus, Andrew, and of course Eileen. Eileen’s role in shaping Maureen was not what I expected, and I cackled every time Eileen opened her mouth in Alliance. I couldn’t imagine out how these two were going to become friends, let alone be inseparable. But without Eileen’s distaste for her, I don’t think Maureen would have survived. Maureen needed someone to look up to—to model exactly what it was going to take to survive against her mother. Maureen needed someone she needed accecptance from who wasn' a person of authority. If Eileen had been accepting, Maureen wouldn’'t have been forced to level up. Do we want to talk about how they went from quasi-enemies to sisters to Maureen killing her best friend? I would love to—but we have one more book to go before we can really deep dive into that conversation.

Now Seamus’ relationship with Maureen was tricky, however Eileen set it up perfectly for me. I want to be clear—there was never any romantic inclinations between Seamus and Maureen. He was completely devoted to Eileen, and Maureen was to Andrew. This is a theme that I traced throughout the entire series—loyalty in relationships and clear communication across the board. These are elite assassins who operate in dangerous scenarios and are highly intelligent. It seems impractical to have them emotionally immature. If your team’s life rests in your ability to stay focused, being worried if your girlfriend is thinking about your teammate is just stupid. Are they human? Yes. But their issues are bigger than jealousy and uncertainty of where they stand in their personal relationships. Because of this, the Legacy culture is built around mental and emotional intelligence.

Okay, with that out of the way: Seamus and Maureen… and Kat. Deep breath. Did I know I would have to write an entire book explaining just how Maureen got pregnant with her best friend’s husband’s child and gave it away and her best friend never found out? No. I did not. I wish I had been thinking that far ahead. We can thank my muses for just dropping that nugget into my mind and just sitting back and watching it grow. Seamus’ friendship was really important to Maureen because it reminded her of Oliver. He was her steady ship in navigating the rough terrain of the Legacy and Hale.

The fact he was accepting of her, and trusting of her judgment made it very easy for Maureen to fall into the Legacy life. She felt safe with him. So why did they sleep together if there was no romantic inclinations? Well, I can’t give you all the answers.

Just kidding.

If we look back at Maureen’s first truly traumatic experience, the death of June and her first kill, Mike comes to her rescue, and in the mess of emotions she slept with him. Lost her virginity to be exact. And she realized she was actually in love with this boy she grew up with. Now there can be a whole psychological breakdown for this, I’m sure, but in short when running from trauma she runs to men to make her feel safe. She did the same with Andrew. After leaving Mike and having her first Sin trip, she never left Andrew’s side.

On the heels of Krista’s death, her brother almost dying, and being shot, Maureen is vulnerable. Add some questionable drug choices, and we have bad decisions. It took a lot of time to figure out how I could make this work without having an affair steal the plotline. We can thank Rosemary for the idea. But what about Seamus? How could he do that to Eileen? He's human. When we get to the nitty gritty of all the choices, these characters are human and make mistakes. However, I get the feeling he will not be doing any type of drugs in the future. #dontdodrugskids

Up until this point we’ve seen Maureen’s transformation from unwanted daughter to accidental yet remorseful killer, to betrayed girl who seeks revenge, to dangerous girl given purpose and choosing to do good in the world. Yes, she killed her mother, but I think we can agree she deserved it. But when Maureen gets pregnant with Katherine, the stakes are now completely different. She doesn't care about revenge against her father as much. There's this small person who is needing her. Maureen genuinely wants to do right by her kid—be the mother June could have been. Prove that her mother was shitty by choice, and that it had nothing to do with who she was.

But what she wants and what is best for her child are completely out of her hands, and the moment Elijah takes Katherine is the true moment her villain arc begins, and I knew this when I realized Maureen was alive and well in Sin.

But how does she go from swearing to protect Katherine, pledging to ruin Elijah, to the woman we meet in Sin? Well, there’s one more prequel to go to answer that question.

This ended up being way longer than I anticipated, but Maureen has proven time and again she has much to say. Do you want more about Maureen? The generational traumas and mirroring happening in the series? Let me know in the comments your thoughts about Maureen, and what other character content you would like to see!

-Libby