Chapter 3

The air in the Queens bodega reeked of stale coffee and sawdust. It was a gritty universe away from the penthouse, and that was exactly why I was here.

I adjusted the oversized sunglasses and pulled my beanie lower. To the casual observer, I looked like a hungover student, not the wife of New York's most dangerous man.

Sal slid a manila envelope across the scratched counter. He didn't look at me. Sal knew that making eye contact was a liability. Looking got you killed.

"June Bennett," he grunted. "Born in Ohio. Clean record. Social security, passport, birth certificate. The history is solid. She exists on paper."

I placed a stack of cash on the counter. Thick. Untraceable.

"Forget you saw me, Sal."

"Saw who?" He didn't miss a beat as he wiped the counter with a grease-stained rag.

I slipped the envelope into my tote bag and walked out into the harsh glare of the sunlight.

The drive to the Meatpacking District was a masterclass in paranoia. I switched cabs three times. I wove through a crowded subway station and exited a different side. I checked reflections in shop windows, hunting for shadows.

No tails. Brendan's men were good, but I trained them. I knew their blind spots better than they knew themselves.

Evans' lab was hidden in the basement of an abandoned slaughterhouse. The irony wasn't lost on me. I was coming here to butcher my past.

The metal door creaked open. The space was sterile, white, and terrifying. It resembled a torture chamber far more than a medical facility. In the center of the room sat a chair equipped with leather restraints.

Evans was washing his hands at a stainless steel sink. He looked like a librarian, not a criminal mastermind.

"You're early," he said.

"I like to be thorough."

He dried his hands and pointed to the chair. "Sit. Let's calibrate the dosage."

I sat. The leather was cold against my skin.

"Is it painful?" I asked.

Evans looked at me over the rim of his glasses, clinical and detached. "We are chemically dissolving the neural pathways that hold your autobiographical self. It will feel like your brain is on fire. It will be excruciating."

"Good," I said. "I want to feel it burn."

He handed me a clipboard. "This is the final waiver. And the notebook."

I took the small, leather-bound notebook. I had spent the last week writing in it. It was an instruction manual for a stranger.

Your name is June.

You own a bookstore in Maine.

You have never been to New York.

You are safe.

It was a lie, but it was a safe lie.

"You'll be a sheep in a world of wolves, Ellery," Evans warned. "Without your memories, you lose your instincts. You won't know how to spot a threat."

"My husband is the threat," I said, my voice steady. "And the only way to hide from him is to not know who he is. If he catches me and interrogates me, I need to know nothing. Total severance."

I checked my watch. I had been gone for forty minutes. The window was closing.

"I'll see you Thursday," I said, standing up.

"Don't be late. The window for the chemical stability is short."

I made it back to the mansion with ten minutes to spare. I entered through the servant's entrance, ditching the disguise in the incinerator chute.

When I walked into the foyer, Brendan was there.

He was standing by the grand staircase, checking his phone. He looked up, his eyes narrowing slightly as they locked onto mine.

"Where were you?"

My heart hammered against my ribs, but my face remained a mask of boredom.

"Antique shopping in the Village. I needed air."

He studied me. He was dissecting my features, hunting for a lie. He was looking for a tremor.

"You didn't take security," he said. His voice was low, dangerous.

"I didn't want a babysitter, Brendan. I just wanted to buy a lamp."

He stared at me for a second longer, the silence stretching thin, then the tension broke. He smirked, his arrogance blinding him. He thought I was too broken to run. He thought I was too dependent to rebel.

He walked over and kissed my forehead. "Next time, take Tony. The city isn't safe."

"I know," I said.

You're the danger, Brendan, I thought. And you're the one who isn't safe.

I walked past him, up the stairs.

Two days left.