All Chapters of Married For The Show: Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

ZOEI tried sending Castor a message, then decided against it.Not yet. The profile wasn't ready.I sat in that coffee shop for almost an hour building her from scratch. I called her Lila Marsh. Twenty-four years old. Junior associate at a firm in the city I knew didn't exist.I pulled photos from a model's portfolio I'd used for a different story two years ago. The girl was real. She lived in Madrid. She had no idea anyone in Kansas City was using her face.I made Lila pretty in the way men like Castor liked pretty. Slim. Polished. Just the right amount of intelligent. Not too challenging. Not too easy. The kind of young woman a man's private hunger reaches for when nobody's watching.I posted four photos. Built a small history. A college. A job. Two friends I made up. A few opinions on policy that lined up just enough with his platform to make her seem like a fan without being obvious about it. I even gave her a dog. Men trusted women with dogs.I packed up my laptop and went home.

RAINAThe drive took twenty minutes.I took the back roads the way Sylvester had told me to. Past the last row of houses on the south side, past the old rail crossing where the lights hadn't worked in years, past the stretch of empty lots where the streetlights thinned out and the city started to forget about itself.The factory sat at the end of a road that didn't have a name anymore. The sign had rusted off years ago. The building was long and low, with dark windows, most of them broken. Weeds had pushed through the parking lot concrete in thick patches. A chain-link fence ran along one side with a gate that hung open on a single hinge.The kind of place nobody came to unless they didn't want to be found.I saw his car before I saw him. Parked at the far end behind a loading dock where the nearest streetlight couldn't reach. Black sedan. Engine off. No headlights.He was leaning against the driver's side door. Arms folded. Coat on. Still. Like he'd been there for a while and had mad

RAINAA day or two passed after I met Sylvester at the old factory.We hadn't spoken again after it. I had no idea what he planned to do with the recording I gave him. However, I was sure that he was making plans to put a stop to this nightmare that was my life.Today, Castor was hosting a dinner at the mansion. Two directors from Rowland Holdings. Men I'd never met before. One was tall with silver hair and a face that looked like it had never smiled. The other was shorter, rounder, with small eyes that moved around the room like he was pricing everything in it.Felix was there too. Sitting to Castor's left in a charcoal suit, his phone face down on the table beside his plate. He'd been at the house since four o'clock going over numbers with Castor in the study.I sat at the other end of the table in a torquise blue dress Castor had picked out for me that afternoon. He'd laid it on the bed with a pair of earrings and a note that said wear these tonight. No please. No question mark.I

RAINAMaria's hand was still over mine. The compress was warming against her cheek. The swelling hadn't gone down yet."Her name was Sofia," she said again. Like saying it twice made it more real. "She was sixteen."I stayed on my knees. I didn't move. I didn't ask questions. I just let her talk."She was a good girl. Smart. She wanted to be a nurse. She used to practice on me. Took my blood pressure with a toy kit she got for Christmas. Told me I needed to eat less salt."A small sound came out of her. Not a laugh. The ghost of one."Fifteen years ago, she didn't come home from school. I waited at the kitchen table until midnight. Called everyone I knew. Called the police. They told me to wait twenty-four hours. Twenty-four hours." Her voice tightened. "My baby was gone and they told me to wait."She paused. Her fingers pressed harder against my hand."They never found her. No body. No note. No witness. Nothing. She walked out of the house on a Tuesday morning with her backpack and h

RAINAThe dinner started at eight.I wasn't there for it. Castor had told me that morning that he didn't want me downstairs tonight. I'd opened my mouth to ask why. Buy He'd looked at me with narrowed eyes and whatever was in his eyes had closed my mouth before a single word came out.So I was in my room. The south wing. Door closed.I could hear it from here. Faint but there. Music drifting down the hallway. Something classical. Strings. The kind of music Castor played when he wanted to impress.Underneath it were voices. Low. Male. The occasional burst of laughter that sounded like it came from deep in someone's chest.I sat on my bed with my knees pulled up and my arms wrapped around them.Eight, maybe ten important men from out of town.The words echoed in my heard.Who were they? Why did Castor organize these parties for them?I thought about Teddy standing in his room with his arms out while a tailor measured his shoulders. His pale face. His blank eyes. The way he'd turned to