MY FATHER SOLD ME TO A DEAF MAFIA BOSS FOR $50—THEN I PULLED A BLINKING DEVICE FROM HIS EAR AND DISCOVERED WHO HAD BEEN CONTROLLING HIS EMPIRE

I stared at the image until the details blurred. Tyler had once pawned our mother's wedding ring to buy a used motorcycle. He had taken my savings and called me selfish when I asked for them back. But breaking into a mafia boss's mansion was a new kind of recklessness.

"He's working for someone," I told Vincent.

Vincent typed: I WILL NOT HURT HIM WITHOUT YOUR CONSENT. WE NEED ANSWERS, NOT REVENGE.

I wanted to believe that promise. I also wanted to know why my own brother had been inside my bedroom.

We returned to the mansion by a side entrance. Adrian waited in the foyer, his smile practiced and cold.

"Vincent, I've been worried," he said. "You left without informing me."

Vincent handed him his phone. I NEEDED AIR.

Adrian's gaze moved to me. "And your wife?"

"I needed groceries," I said. "Apparently nobody here knows how to buy decent bread."

His smile thinned. "How domestic."

I walked past him without looking back. In the kitchen, I found a slip of paper beneath the sugar jar: YOU SHOULD HAVE STAYED A MAID.

I folded it into my pocket. Whoever had written it wanted me frightened and quiet. They had misunderstood how long I had practiced surviving both.

That afternoon I sent Tyler a message from a new number: I KNOW ABOUT THE WATCH. MEET ME WHERE MOM USED TO WORK. COME ALONE.

The old laundromat on Ashland Avenue was closed, its windows papered over. Marco waited across the street while I stood beneath the awning. Tyler arrived twenty minutes late, his face pale and his jacket too thin for October's cold.

"You shouldn't have texted me," he hissed.

"Why were you in my room?"

He looked away. "I was supposed to find a little metal thing. That's all."

"Who sent you?"

"Dad owed more than we thought. A man said he'd clear it if I helped."

"Adrian Bell?"

Tyler flinched. That was answer enough.

He reached for my sleeve. "You don't understand. These people don't forgive debts."

I pulled away. "Neither did you, when Dad took my wages. You watched him sell me and laughed."

His eyes filled, but I was too tired to comfort him.

"Tell me everything," I said.

He admitted Adrian had approached our father months before the wedding. The fifty-dollar exchange was staged to humiliate me and make Vincent appear monstrous. Adrian had promised my family money if I married Vincent and reported his private habits. My father had accepted the first payment without telling me. When I failed to spy, Adrian recruited Tyler directly.

"Why me?" I asked.

Tyler swallowed. "Because you notice things. Dad said you'd see what the others missed. Adrian wanted you close enough to find something Vincent kept hidden."

A car turned onto the street. Tyler saw it and stepped backward.

"He's here," he whispered.

The black sedan slowed. Its tinted rear window lowered just enough to reveal Adrian's face.