Chapter One

Rose Alexandria Sinclair

Midnight always felt crueler in poor neighborhoods.

Maybe it was because darkness made everything uglier. The peeling walls. The broken windows. The smell of cigarettes soaked into old furniture and unpaid misery.

Or maybe it was because monsters preferred the dark.

“Please—!”

My scream tore through the apartment just as another punch slammed into my father’s face.

The crack echoed through the living room.

I flinched.

Blood splattered across the floorboards.

“Stop!” I stumbled forward, dropping to my knees so fast they slammed painfully against the hardwood. “Please, stop hurting him!”

Three men stood inside our apartment like they owned it.

Maybe they did.

One leaned casually against the wall, dressed in black from head to toe, his tattooed fingers tapping against a metal bat. Another adjusted the cuffs of his expensive coat while my father wheezed on the floor beneath him.

The third one smiled at me.

That smile terrified me most.

“You’ll pay his debt?” he asked softly.

I nodded too quickly. “Yes. I swear I will.”

His gaze dragged slowly over me.

Not my face.

My body.

Humiliation crawled beneath my skin.

“Cute,” he murmured. “But your daddy owes a lot more than pretty tears.”

My stomach tightened.

“How much?”

“Five million.”

The words hit me harder than the sound of the bat against my father’s ribs.

I turned sharply toward him. “Five million?” My voice cracked. “Pa, what the hell did you do?”

My father couldn’t even look at me.

Blood dripped from his mouth onto the floor.

The man with the bat laughed quietly. “Gambling addiction. Nasty little disease.”

I felt sick.

The hospital bills. Mom’s surgery. The eviction notices. The overdue electricity payments.

All this time, while I was drowning trying to keep us alive—

He was gambling.

“I—I have money,” I said desperately, digging into my bag with shaking hands. “A thousand dollars. Please, just take it first. I can get more.”

The room went silent.

Then one of them laughed.

Not kindly.

Cruelly.

“A thousand?” the man mocked. “Sweetheart, that barely pays for the wine we drink.”

Before I could speak again, the bat slammed down.

My father screamed.

Something inside me snapped.

“STOP!”

A sharp sting exploded across my cheek.

My head whipped sideways.

For a second, all I tasted was blood.

The man staring down at me sighed almost lazily. “You’re getting loud.”

Tears burned my eyes, but I refused to let them fall again.

I hated this.

I hated all of it.

The rotting apartment.

The hospital smell permanently stuck to my clothes from sleeping beside my mother every night.

The debt collectors.

The fear.

The exhaustion.

And most of all—

I hated him.

“We’ll come back tomorrow,” the leader said calmly. “If the money isn’t ready, we stop being polite.”

The men finally left.

The door slammed shut behind them.

Silence rushed in immediately after, thick and suffocating.

My father coughed violently on the floor.

I stared at him for a long moment before kneeling beside him.

“You promised me you stopped gambling.”

His swollen face twisted with shame.

“Rose—”

“No.” My voice came out shaking. “Mom is dying.”

That finally broke me.

I stood abruptly, pacing the tiny living room while trying not to scream.

“She needs heart surgery, Pa. HEART SURGERY.” I turned toward him furiously. “Do you even understand what that means? Every single day I’m trying to figure out how to keep this family alive while you—”

“I was trying to help!” he shouted suddenly.

I laughed.

Actually laughed.

The sound came out broken.

“Help?” I whispered. “You call this help?”

His shoulders sagged.

“I thought if I won enough…” His voice cracked. “I could fix everything.”

Fix everything.

Men like him always said that right before destroying everything instead.

I pressed trembling fingers against my forehead.

“I can’t do this anymore.”

“Rose—”

“No.” I shook my head hard. “I’ve spent years cleaning up your messes. Years.” My chest tightened painfully. “I gave up school opportunities for this family. I worked double shifts while taking care of Mom. I stayed when everybody else would’ve run.”

His eyes filled with tears.

But mine were empty now.

“And for what?” I asked bitterly. “So you could gamble away our lives?”

He looked away.

That silence hurt more than any answer.

Then he said the one thing that truly destroyed something inside me.

“You’re beautiful, Rose,” he muttered weakly. “Men like girls like you. Maybe if you spend time with rich men… maybe they’ll forgive the debt.”

For a second, I thought I heard him wrong.

The room became strangely quiet.

Cold.

“What?”

His voice shook. “I’m just saying maybe you could—”

“Sell myself?” I finished for him.

He said nothing.

That was enough.

I stepped back slowly, disgust rising in my throat.

“You want me to sleep with men to clean up your mistakes?”

“Rose, listen—”

“No!” My voice cracked loudly through the apartment. “No, don’t you dare explain yourself!”

I could barely breathe.

“You’re my father.”

The words came out smaller than I intended.

Broken.

“I know,” he whispered.

“No, you don’t.” Tears finally spilled down my face. “Because no father who loves his daughter would ever ask her to do something like that.”

Shame filled his expression.

But it was too late.

Way too late.

“I hate you,” I whispered.

The words stunned both of us.

His face fell instantly.

And somehow that made me angrier.

“You ruined everything,” I choked out. “Every single thing.”

“Rose—”

“I hate this house. I hate this life. I hate what we became.”

My breathing turned uneven as years of buried pain finally ripped out of me all at once.

“I’m tired,” I admitted shakily. “I’m so tired.”

The room suddenly felt too small.

Too hot.

I grabbed my jacket and headed for the door.

“Rose!” my father called desperately behind me.

I ignored him.

I slammed the door so hard the walls shook.

Then I ran.

Cold air hit my face the second I stepped outside, but it did nothing to calm the panic clawing through my chest.

I kept moving.

Past broken streetlights.

Past empty sidewalks.

Past strangers who didn’t even glance at me.

Tears blurred my vision as I wiped furiously at my face.

Everything hurt.

My chest.

My head.

My heart.

I didn’t even know where I was going anymore.

I just needed to get away.

I turned sharply into a quieter street.

And froze.

Three men stood ahead of me.

Dark clothes.

Tall bodies.

Watching.

My stomach dropped.

I spun around quickly—

Only to find more men stepping out behind me.

Panic exploded through my chest.

“What do you want?” I demanded breathlessly, backing away. “Who are you?”

None of them answered immediately.

One of the men stepped forward slowly.

“Rose Alexandria Sinclair,” he said calmly.

Fear crawled down my spine.

“How do you know my name?”

Another man smirked.

“She’s definitely the one.”

The one for what?

Before I could run, rough fingers grabbed my arm.

I screamed instantly, struggling hard, but another hand clamped over my mouth.

“LET ME GO!”

“Hold her still.”

Then I saw it.

The metal object in one man’s hand.

My eyes widened.

A sharp pain exploded against the side of my head.

Everything tilted violently.

Warm blood slid down my temple.

The street spun around me.

Voices blurred together.

“She’ll do nicely.”

“Boss will love this one.”

Darkness swallowed me whole.