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“Keep your voice down!”

The chair scrapes against the glossy black floor of Noah’s dining room as I pull it out and drop down. The energy seems to sap from my body as I glance out the windows, trying to take stock of how many men are guarding the outside.

If there’s not too many, I might be able to escape.

Mom slaps her hand on the table in front of me. “Don’t you dare talk to me that way, Gia. Not when you’re the one who screwed up.”

“Are you calling Bianca a screwup?” I ask, voice venomous as I rub my bruised knuckles.

She hands me the ice wrapped in the stained tea towel she embroidered small blue flowers onto years ago. “No. I’m not saying that. What I’m saying is that you sleeping with a damn Lynde is a screwup. Tell me that you had no clue who he was before you slept with him.”

I bite my tongue and press the ice to my knuckles, hissing slightly at the sting.

Maybe I shouldn’t have punched Jace in the face a couple hours ago but watching him try to explain the broken nose and my bruised knuckles was the most fun I’ve had in a long time.

If I have to risk being around my brother again, someone has to pay for it.

Though, staying with Royce might’ve been a better idea. He’s not the most stable person, but he thinks things through. He doesn’t act on impulse like Noah can be prone to do.

Mom sighs and slumps down into the chair beside me. “I don’t know how we’re going to keep this from Noah. You knowingly slept with someone in the family he’s trying to destroy. You had a baby with a Lynde. You understand that this changes things, don’t you?”

“You know, I keep hearing that it changes things, but I don’t know why. Me and my daughter don’t have to be pulled into this shitstorm.”

“He’s her father too. You know that. He has as much right to be around his daughter as you do.”

“No. He really doesn’t.”

She leans forward, her elbows on the table as she rubs her temples. “I don’t know what we’re going to do about this, Gia. You’re going to have to tell him sooner or later.”

“The more you talk about it, the greater chance there is of someone overhearing and telling him.” I glance over my shoulder at the doorway, and sure enough, a man dressed in all black with a face that looks carved from stone marches by.

I stare at her, and for a moment, I wonder if I’m going to have to kill my mother.

I’ve killed people before when I’ve had to. The thought of turning a gun on her makes me sick, but if she’s about to expose me, it might be the only thing I can do.

Protect Bianca at all costs.

It’s the mantra that plays through my head every day. And now it seems more prevalent than ever. One person after another keeps threatening to come after her.

Will I have to turn into a serial killer to finally get my freedom?

Mom leans in, patting my good hand. “You need to let Noah help you, alright? I know that you think he’s got something else going on, but that’s just you being paranoid and now it’s clear to see why. You’ve spent the last two and a half years hiding the fact that Bianca is a Lynde.”

“Noah wants to leverage me in whatever way he can. Right now, that’s forging paintings for him, but what’s that going to look like if he finds out the truth?” I pull away from her, not sure who the woman sitting across from me is.

I love my mother to death, but she’s been blind to the way Noah and his father worked for a long time. Even with his father dead and only Noah to contend with, she still can’t—or maybe it’s that she refuses—to see the danger that lingers around him like a dark cloud.

She shakes her head, looking at me like she thinks I’m overreacting. “Really, Gia, you need to just let this go and trust him. He’s your older brother. Do you really think he’s going to let anything happen to you?”

“He let me get kidnapped.”

“I’m sure he didn’t think they would come for you. He’s done such a good job at keeping you and Zoe hidden all these years. You know, it was his idea that you took my last name instead of his father’s.”

It was also his idea to teach me how to kill people before I was even a teenager. He was also the one who saw the ability I had to paint and figured out a way to use it to keep me his prisoner.

He thought of all the ways he could trap me and he executed them all with a flawless precision I should’ve fought against years ago.

“Mom, this is insane. My daughter is upstairs sleeping right now, but do you think he would leave her alone if he knew the truth?”