Chapter 2

The morning air bit at Catherine's skin as she stepped off the rusted Greyhound bus.

She pulled her thin jacket tighter. She walked down the muddy gravel path toward the dilapidated trailer park in upstate New York. Her spine curved, her shoulders slumped. She let the mask of a timid, worthless girl slide back over her features.

Before she even reached the aluminum steps of her family's trailer, she heard her adoptive father, Dale Burke, screaming at a debt collector over the phone.

She pushed the squeaky metal door open. The stench of stale beer and cheap tobacco hit her face.

Her adoptive mother, Brenda, sat on the torn vinyl sofa, painting her nails a garish pink. Brenda looked up, her eyes narrowing with disgust at Catherine's disheveled state.

Jenna Burke, dressed in a tight sequined top, walked out of the narrow hallway. She sneered.

"Look at the stray dog dragging herself back," Jenna mocked.

Dale slammed a stack of final-notice bills onto the wobbly dining table. He turned his red, furious face toward Catherine. He announced that the family's trucking business was going into bankruptcy liquidation by the end of the week.

Catherine stared at the floor. She turned toward the tiny storage closet she used as a bedroom.

Brenda stood up and blocked her path. She slapped a thick stack of legal documents directly against Catherine's chest.

The papers fluttered to the linoleum floor. Catherine looked down. The top sheet bore the official seal of the New York State Supreme Court. It was a marriage certificate.

Her name was printed on the spouse line. Next to it was a name she had never seen before: Arjun Hughes.

"We signed it for you through a legal proxy," Dale said, a greasy smile spreading across his face.

"He's a blind, crippled tech billionaire," Jenna chimed in, laughing. "A complete psycho. But his family pays well."

Catherine knelt and flipped through the prenuptial agreement. The clauses were brutal. She was a biological asset, a tool to pacify the Hughes family elders, entirely disposable.

Dale had sold her for a ten-million-dollar dowry to save his sinking company.

Bile rose in Catherine's throat. Her fingers dug into the crisp white paper until her knuckles turned white.

"If you don't get in the car when they come," Brenda hissed, leaning close, "we sell your grandfather's botanical garden to the developers tomorrow."

At the mention of the garden, a cold, murderous spike drove through Catherine's chest. That land was her only connection to her past. It was her absolute bottom line.

She forced her breathing to slow. She swallowed the urge to snap Brenda's neck right there in the cramped kitchen.

She needed the deed. And a blind, reclusive billionaire might be the perfect shield for her other lives.

Catherine let her eyes go wide and vacant. She nodded slowly, playing the broken victim perfectly.

Dale laughed. He ordered her to wash the filth off her body and put on something decent before the groom's transport arrived.

Catherine walked into the moldy bathroom and locked the flimsy door. She stared at the mirror. Faint red marks dotted her collarbone from the stranger at the club.

She turned the shower dial to freezing cold. She stood under the icy spray, scrubbing her skin raw to wash away the scent of the man from last night.

She reached up to wash her neck. Her fingers brushed empty skin.

Her heart dropped into her stomach. The St. Christopher medal was gone. It had to be in that safe room. There was no time to go back for it now.

She stepped out of the shower and wrapped a thin towel around her waist. Jenna had thrown a hideous, cheap floral dress onto her cot.

Catherine pulled the ill-fitting fabric over her head. She made sure she looked exactly like the uneducated, pathetic girl they thought she was.

A low, powerful engine rumble shook the thin walls of the trailer.

A black, armored Maybach rolled to a stop in the muddy dirt patch outside. The neighbors peeked through their broken blinds, staring at the alien machine.