LOGINHe leans forward, his voice dropping into a conspiratorial, deeply unsettling whisper as he stares directly into my green contact lenses. "In fact... you don't have to be a maid at all, Candy. I can make all of this manual labor disappear with a single phone call. If you can just agree to be my pri
"Look, Naomi, if Dennise catches you in here, she’s going to—" The distinct, heavy sound of the deadbolt locking echoes through the quiet kitchen. My entire body goes completely rigid. My instincts scream at me, a cold shock of adrenaline instantly shooting straight to my fingertips. That isn't th
I smooth down the front of my oversized, scratchy maid uniform, my fingers tracing the small bruise on my chest from where Caroline's finger violently ripped my dress open at the cemetery yesterday. My skin still feels raw from the humiliation, my eyes are burning from crying all night over Owen, a
The striking, facial structure. Sydney is an absolute, undeniable replica of the woman in the vintage photograph—Tobias’s mother. The almost psychotic protectiveness Tobias has shown toward Sydney from the very first moment he met her. The massive financial safety nets he threw under her, the fact
Before I can even open my mouth to apologize for breaking into his house, Tobias speaks. His voice is incredibly quiet, completely devoid of its usual sharp authority, yet it carries a heavy, haunting weight that pins me right to the carpet. "For years..." he murmurs, his finger continuing its slow
I stand frozen on the gravel path, the engine of Sydney’s departing car roaring in my ears. I watch the taillights of her vehicle bounce over the cemetery threshold, disappearing completely from sight, and with every inch of distance she puts between us, my heart shatters into a million jagged, irre
My mind blurs, taking me back down a memory lane I’ve tried to pave over for years. My fingers find a folded piece of paper tucked into the base of the box and I pull it out as tears gather in my eyes. "Owen," I whisper, my voice cracking. "I... I didn't realize, but this was the music box Deckard
"To be honest," I say, meeting Sydney's skeptical gaze, "I don't actually have a specific objective in mind. I brought you here primarily because my mother has been calling me three times a day asking to see us. I figured it was time to kill two birds with one stone." I let out a long breath, liste
The hallway of the Newton’s mansion is long, arched, and lined with portraits of ancestors who look like they’ve never smiled a day in their lives. I’m practically jogging to keep up with Owen’s long strides, and very out of breath. "Hey, slow down would you?" He ignores me and if anything, incr
The moment we step through the door, Grandmother is on me. She pulls me into a hug that smells faintly of lavender and old paper, but the warmth is immediately punctuated by a sharp poke to my ribs. "You," she says, pulling back to fix me with a squinted gaze that could pierce armor. "You are a lit







