PART 3 For a moment, no one in Patrick Walker’s hospital room moved. The monitors continued their soft, steady rhythm beside the bed. Evening light pressed against the private windows,...
PART 2 The handcuffs closed around my wrists with a sound I knew I would never forget. It was not loud. That was what made it terrible. Just a small...
PART 3 “The first was you.” Dr. Whitcomb’s words did not land all at once. They moved slowly through the hospital room, finding every fragile part of me that had...
PART 2 For a moment, the room disappeared. The machines, the rain, the guard outside the door, even Dante Moretti himself faded into a dull white blur as those words...
PART 3 The black flash drive looked too small to hold the weight of the room. It rested in my open palm, no larger than my thumb, its matte surface...
PART 2 For a moment, the mansion went silent around us. Not quiet. Silent. There was a difference I had learned during my two years in Jackson Steel’s house. Quiet...
PART 3 “What did she mean?” I whispered. Dante did not answer. For the first time since he had risen from the second pew and covered my torn gown with...
PART 2 “Who touched her dress?” Dante Moretti did not raise his voice. He did not need to. The old cathedral, which only moments ago had been full of murmurs,...
PART 3 The woman in the photograph was Evelyn Bennett. For a moment, the hospital room stopped existing. The steady green line on Vincent’s monitor still moved. The IV pump...
PART 2 “Don’t let go,” Vincent Mercer begged. For a heartbeat, I forgot the armed men outside the glass doors. I forgot Melissa Grant standing safely beyond reach, the surgeon...