Chapter 1

The sound of shattering glass ripped through the quiet morning.

I flinched, my heart jumping into my throat.

Ethan stood in the doorway of my small, damp guest house, a shard of my mother' s old music box in his hand. The rest of it lay broken on the cheap linoleum floor.

It was the only thing I had left of her, besides memories.

"Cleaning out the trash, Sarah."

His voice was cold, like the wind that whistled through the ill-fitting window frame.

"Ethan, please. That was my mother's."

My voice trembled. I hated how weak I sounded.

He stepped further into the room, his expensive shoes crunching on the fragments.

"Memories are a luxury you can't afford. Just like Leo's treatment."

He dropped the shard he held. It landed near my worn-out sneakers.

Leo. My brother. The reason I endured this.

"The first payment for Leo's new trial is due today," I said, trying to keep the desperation out of my voice. "You promised."

Ethan walked closer, towering over me. I could smell his expensive cologne, a scent I once associated with love, now only with fear.

"Promises are for people who deserve them. Are you one of those, Sarah? After what you did to Olivia?"

Olivia. His sister. Gone two years now. He blamed me. He would always blame me.

"I told you, I don't know what happened to Olivia."

"Liar."

The word was a slap.

He reached out, not to hit me, but to trail a finger down my cheek. A touch that felt like ice.

"You will do exactly as I say. You will be exactly what I tell you to be. And maybe, just maybe, Leo will get his medicine."

He looked around the squalid room with disgust. "Chloe needs you at the main house. She's hosting a charity luncheon. You'll serve."

Serve. Like a maid. I, who used to argue cases in court for people who couldn't afford help.

"And Sarah?"

"Yes?"

"Try not to look so pathetic. It ruins Chloe's appetite."

He turned and left, leaving me with the broken pieces of my mother' s memory and the crushing weight of his power.

I knelt, carefully picking up the larger fragments of the music box. My hands shook.

Leo needed that treatment. It was experimental, expensive, and Ethan was his only hope. Our only hope.

I had to submit. I had no other choice.

The alternative was watching Leo die. And if Leo died...

I pushed that thought away. It was a secret terror, a dark knowledge only my family held.

I stood up, brushing dust and tiny glass splinters from my cheap dress.

Pathetic. Maybe I was. But I was also a survivor. For Leo.

I would endure Chloe. I would endure Ethan.

I would do anything.