All Chapters of Married For The Show: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

CASTORThe doctor charged me forty thousand dollars.Forty thousand. For three hours, two injections, and a bag of IV fluid. The man had barely broken a sweat and he was billing me like he'd performed open heart surgery in my living room.I poured myself a whiskey and dialed Markov.He picked up on the first ring. He always did when my number came up. Smart man."We have a problem," I said."I heard.""From who?""Felix called me an hour ago."I made a mental note to have a conversation with Felix about who he called and when."The boy is done," I said. "I want a replacement by the weekend.""That's fast, Castor.""I don't care if it's fast. I want it done.""What are you looking for?""Younger. Smaller. Something fresh." I took a sip of the whiskey and leaned back in my chair. "Teddy's been here too long. He's getting difficult. Moody. Last night was the final straw.""What happened wasn't the boy's fault. Whatever they gave him—""I don't care whose fault it was. The evening was ru

RAINA I turned my head. Just barely.His face was right there. So close I could see the flecks of silver in his grey eyes. The stubble along his jaw. A small scar near his mouth I'd never noticed before.He looked at my lips.He didn't pretend not to.I could feel my heartbeat in my throat. In my wrists. In places I didn't want to think about with him this close.Something passed between us. Something that didn't have a name yet. Something that made the air in the room feel like it had been set on fire.He didn't move.I didn't move.One of us was going to do something stupid if this lasted another second.Then he pulled back. Slow. Like dragging himself out of water. His hand trailed across the back of my chair and the touch ran down my spine like a fingertip.He walked to the other side of the dining table. Sat down. Picked up the phone cloning chip like nothing had happened.But his jaw was tight. And when he reached for his glass of water, his hand wasn't steady."This goes again

RAINAFive days later.I saw him from my bedroom window on Tuesday's afternoon.A black SUV pulled up to the side entrance. The kind with tinted windows and no plates I could read from this distance. The driver got out first. Walked around to the back door. Opened it.A boy stepped out.He was small. Thin. Younger than Teddy. Maybe fifteen, maybe less. He was wearing jeans that were too big for him and a grey hoodie with the sleeves pushed up past his wrists. He had a small backpack hanging from one shoulder.He stood on the gravel and looked up at the house.The way he looked at it made my chest cave in. It was the look of someone who didn't understand where they were. Who didn't know what this place was or why they'd been brought here. His eyes moved across the windows, the stone walls, the size of it, and I could see the confusion on his face even from this distance.The driver put a hand on his shoulder and guided him toward the front door. The boy went without resisting. He held

SYLVESTERI was in my study with a stack of files spread out across the desk when the doorbell rang.Nine o'clock on a Tuesday night. I wasn't expecting anyone. Patrick was in D.C. for the week. Nobody else had this address except the people who needed it.I closed the file I'd been reading. A property deed connected to one of Castor's shell companies. The kind of document that looked boring until you noticed the signatures at the bottom didn't match any name on public record.The doorbell rang again.I crossed the apartment and opened the door.Raina.She was the last person I expected to see tonight. I hadn't heard from her since she was last here. No texts on the burner. No calls. Nothing. I'd told myself the silence was a good thing. Space was smart. Distance was necessary.Now she was standing on my doorstep in a black dress and every word I'd said to myself evaporated.The dress was simple. That was the worst part. It wasn't trying to do anything. It just fit her. Tight at the w

MARIA I had worked in this house for fourteen years. I knew every room, every corner. Every creak in every floorboard. I knew which doors stuck in the summer heat and which windows let in drafts in December. I knew the exact time the morning light hit the kitchen counter and the exact hour the west hallway went dark in the evenings. I knew this house the way you know a body you've been caring for that isn't your own. Every detail memorized. None of it loved. Before Raina came, the days were the same. Wake at five. Coffee on the stove by five thirty. Castor's breakfast laid out by seven. The house cleaned top to bottom by noon. Laundry. Ironing. Dinner prep. Then the evening, when the house changed into something else. Something I'd learned to ignore. You knew it was there. You knew it could burn you. So you kept your eyes down and your mouth shut and you got through it. That's how I survived fourteen years. Eyes down. Mouth shut. Kenneth Rowland had hired me with a pro