That was the only thing Sebastian James left me.
I thought of that bear of a man—soaked in blood in his final moments, yet still wearing that goofy grin as he shoved the phone into my hands.
"Wifey, this thing is built like a tank. It's got a life-saving talisman inside for you."
I wiped a smear of blood from the corner of my mouth, my gaze turning to ice.
*Bad luck?*
*We'll see who's really cursed.*
For the next two days, I made myself visible. Lingered around the Henson Group headquarters like bait dangling from a hook.
Same rags. Same broken posture. At night, I stayed in a dilapidated rental unit nearby, the kind of place where the walls sweated and the pipes groaned like dying animals.
I knew they wouldn't be able to resist.
Sure enough, two nights later, the trap sprung. A group of men stormed the rental, knocked me unconscious, and dragged me into the dark.
...
"Aria, you really shouldn't have come back right now."
Matthew Henson's voice drifted through the fog in my skull.
"I warned you to behave, but you just had to provoke me."
My eyelids cracked open. Sterile white light stabbed into my retinas. The sharp tang of antiseptic flooded my nostrils, mixing with something metallic—old blood, maybe, soaked into the grout between the floor tiles.
I was strapped to a surgical table. Leather bit into my wrists when I tested the restraints.
*Immobile.*
Georgia Pruitt stood nearby, pristine as a porcelain doll and twice as hollow.
"Matthew, she's doing this on purpose." Her voice dripped with poisoned honey. "She wants to cause a scene right when Blackstone Capital is conducting their inspection."
She tilted her chin toward him, batting those doe eyes. "If Blackstone finds out the Henson family is harboring a crazy woman—one pregnant with a bastard, no less—do you think they'll still finance us?"
My vision swam. Matthew's expression blurred at the edges.
"What are you hesitating for?" Ryan Gilbert stepped into view, his jaw tight. "The doctor is here. She's tied up. All we need is your order."
Matthew said nothing.
Ryan's teeth ground together audibly. "You think you're helping her? How is a single woman supposed to survive with a child?"
"Besides—" He jabbed a finger in my direction. "Aria's been lurking around the company for days. She's clearly planning to sabotage us during the audit. Even if you don't care about yourself, think about the Group. Think about Georgia."
The manipulation landed exactly where it was meant to.
Matthew approached the table. Tears shimmered in his eyes.
*Crocodile tears.*
"Aria, I'm doing this for your own good." His voice trembled with feigned nobility. "Once you get rid of that thing inside you, you'll still be my sister. I'll make you Georgia's assistant. I'll make sure you're fed and clothed."
He stared down at me—but he wasn't explaining anything to me.
He was brainwashing himself.
His hand rose, beckoning the doctor forward.
I summoned every ounce of strength left in my body.
"Bring me my phone."
My voice came out raw. Steady.
"Or you'll regret this for the rest of your life."
Matthew froze mid-gesture.
Georgia scoffed, rolling her eyes. "That broken Nokia? We threw that trash away ages ago."
"Is that so?"
The corner of my mouth quirked up.
"Then you're finished."
The words hung in the sterile air.
"I set a dead man's switch on that phone. If I don't enter a password every twelve hours, it automatically sends a file to Jason Fox at Blackstone Capital."
The color drained from their faces like water from a cracked basin. The temperature in the room seemed to plummet.
"What file?"
