pte

D

hattered my eardrum. I held the

Nice to hear

onths, no contact, no explanation, nothing, and you thi

inseparable growing up. We'd shared a womb, shared a birthday, shared everythin

said quietly

got himself arrested trying to hack into government databases to find you! And Sophia-" His voice cracked. "Soph

ve. My baby sister, planning my

he words spilling out. "And I knew if I t

th-" He stopped abruptly. "Wait. This is about that b

t the necklace, about my promise. He w

found him,"

broken only by Adrian's heav

ly asked, his v

o someone else, marrying a man who treats me like garbage, destroying everything I wa

Christ,

ea

d n

cked away like it meant nothing. "Now I've learned my lesson. It wasn

w s

o find out which of his friends actually owns

t. "You're going to find the

es

d t

n's world to the ground and take

ster I know. Okay, I'm calling Mikael and Elijah

ea

n, I will hunt you down and

erst

ll in. Then I became aware of something else-the prickling sensation at the b

n't a

ng to the darkness of the parking lot. Five figures detached themselves f

way they moved, coordinated and purposeful

haved head and neck tattoos, stepped forward. "Ms

What mattered was that someone had been watching me, tracking me,

ulders to loosen them. My body remembered the movem

. "That wasn

em moved as on

m time to coordin

make him stumble back, gasping. I spun low, sweeping the legs out from under the man to my le

ove my elbow into the second attacker's solar plexus, and caught the third w

arters. I caught his wrist, twisted until I felt bones grind together, and used his own m

m in the ribs-three of them cracked audibly-a

s was struggling to breathe. Tank was unconscious, blood streaming from his brok

reathing hard, "that Adriana Salvadore d

od. Let whoever sent them know e

ous body, got in my car, and d

d onto the highway. I answered

ng your phone and it shows you at some storag

y rearview mirror. No follower

like that's n

ou know me

ome to the family estate. Let us hel

mansion, to my parents and siblings, to the life of l

not

"I have a few thin

out who owns t

other t

our hu

esperate wife he married never actually existed. And when I'm done

feel sorry

He earned every bi

ght, leaving five broken men and e

real savior wa

, I was doing