All Chapters of The Terms We Never Signed: Chapter 11 - Chapter 19

Chapter Twelve"Say that again."Damian's voice had gone flat, the kind of flat that came right before something broke, and he had not stopped moving since I showed him the message."The person protecting Claire." I held the phone between us, the message still glowing on the screen. "It has to be Reese. Claire's sister is the only person outside this family who's known where she was hiding since the beginning.""Reese is a lawyer. She wouldn't sell her own sister out.""People sell out people they love every day when the price is high enough."Damian grabbed his keys off the desk without another word, already moving toward the door, and I followed because staying behind felt worse than whatever waited for us next.We found Reese Whitfield's office on the thirty eighth floor of a building three blocks from Cross Media, her name etched in gold letters on frosted glass. The lights were still on despite the hour, a single shadow moving behind the door, and my heart climbed higher in my ch

Chapter Fourteen"Call him. Now."Damian already had his phone out before I finished speaking, Marcus Feld's name pulled up from some old contact list he had never deleted, his thumb hovering over the call button like the act of pressing it might make everything real.It rang four times before going to voicemail, an automated greeting that gave nothing away."He's not picking up," Damian said, already dialing again.The young woman in the doorway, Reese's assistant, wrapped her arms around herself like the office had suddenly gone cold. "He sounded scared on the phone. Not like himself at all. Marcus has always been so steady, even when things got bad with the family.""Where does he live now," I asked, my mind already racing ahead to what we would find when we got there."I don't know exactly. Somewhere out past Red Hook, I think. He mentioned a warehouse once, something he uses for storage." She twisted her hands together. "He never let anyone visit. Said it was safer that way."Ree

Chapter SixteenThe back door hung open when I got there, unforced and unlocked, swinging slightly on its hinges like whoever left it that way hadn't cared enough to close it behind them.I killed the engine two blocks early and walked the rest of the way, every streetlight along Van Brunt either burned out or flickering, like Red Hook itself had decided to stop paying attention tonight.My phone stayed silent in my pocket, no word from Ivy, no word from Marcus, nothing but the sound of my own footsteps on wet asphalt and the distant groan of a container ship somewhere out past the pier.I should have called the police. I knew that the second I stepped off the sidewalk toward that door. But calling the police meant explaining who Marcus was, what he knew, and why my stepmother might have sent someone to make sure he never said another word, and every version of that conversation ended with evidence disappearing before anyone official ever saw it. I had spent two years watching Vivian

Chapter Eighteen"You found it faster than I expected."Vivian's voice came from the doorway, calm and unhurried, like she had simply let herself in rather than broken into a house that wasn't hers. She stood with her coat still buttoned, gloves still on, as though she had planned to be here only a moment before leaving again.Reese spun first, putting herself between Vivian and me before I had even finished turning around."How did you get in here."Reese's voice had gone hard, protective, her whole body angled to keep herself between Vivian and me."The same way you did." Vivian stepped into the study, her heels clicking softly against the hardwood, her eyes moving over the open ledger on the desk with an interest that made my skin crawl. "Sarah was always careless about locking the back door. I told her once it would get her into trouble."My stomach dropped. "You know Sarah."The name felt strange coming out of Vivian's mouth, like she had reached into a part of this story that ha