Chapter 2

Drew locked me in the basement.

The moment the darkness swallowed me, it dragged up the old nightmare—being locked in a black little room by traffickers as a child. Phantom pain from a branding iron seared through my limbs, and I screamed.

"Let me out! I don't want any of it anymore. I don't want anything!"

Drew knew perfectly well how badly I feared the dark because of what happened to me as a child. There'd been a time when that knowledge softened him, when he swore he'd never let me face even a sliver of darkness again for the rest of my life. Now, he was using it to punish me.

The panic clawing at my chest left me gasping for air. Without thinking, I pulled up the chat window I'd kept pinned at the top of my phone for years.

The moment I saw the message history, my blood ran cold.

That wasn't my best friend.

It had been my brother the whole time, hiding behind a fake account.

Every moment of it—my confusion when I first came home, the helplessness of being bullied, the despair after I lost my son—he'd talked me through all of it, offering comfort at every turn. Only now did I understand that none of those words had ever been meant to heal me. They'd been meant to condition me into giving Valerie whatever she wanted, no questions asked.

I bit down until I tasted blood.

Ten years. I wasn't going to keep playing the fool.

The instant I unfriended his account, Rick showed up and dragged me out of the basement.

"Why did you unfriend me?" He glared at me, his voice thick with anger. "I lied to you, but it was for your own good—to toughen you up."

I could only laugh, bitter and cold.

"For my own good? You had me diving for corpses for six years, searching for bodies that didn't even exist."

My hands had gone raw and waterlogged. My legs had developed arthritis. Every inch of my body carried scars from reefs and rotting debris. Once, the current had dragged me under and damaged my lungs so badly I could never dive again.

Rick only sneered when he heard it.

"I arranged every single person who sent you out to dive. Did you really think I'd let you suffer for real? You just couldn't handle giving up your pampered lifestyle, and you're still whining about it."

A wave of absurdity crashed over me. Of course. I should have known better than to expect anything from him.

That was when Drew walked in with Valerie Watson.

Six years apart hadn't changed her. She still had that same soft, delicate look.

"Carrie, let the past stay in the past. We're all family here. There's no need to keep making a scene."

Rick looked pleased and immediately turned to lecture me.

"Valerie went through so much and never once complained. She's far more mature than you."

The irony of it almost made me laugh. "So mature she stole my son?"

Rick's expression stiffened. Drew's face filled with reproach.

"Carrie, when are you going to stop this? Valerie's already let go of everything that happened. Do you have to make everyone miserable?"

Valerie came toward me, her eyes red.

"Carrie, I've wronged you. Don't blame Rick and Drew. If you're angry, take it out on me."

She reached out toward me. The next second, she yelped and stumbled backward into Drew's arms.

"Carrie, I only wanted your forgiveness—" She burst into tears, looking utterly wronged.

Rick shoved me back.

"Carrie, you've gone too far!"

I stumbled from the force of it. Drew looked at me, disappointment written across his face.

"If I'd known you'd stay this stubborn, I never should have let you come back."

The last flicker of warmth in my heart went out.

I didn't argue anymore. As I left the mansion, the System's chime sounded in my head.

[Twenty-four hours remaining.]

I was almost free.

But the thought of my son, taken from me, still sent a dull ache through my chest.

That was when my phone screen lit up.

[Recovery site confirmed for the remains in the river channel outside the city. Come at once.]