Chapter 1

A splash of ice-cold water hit my face, shocking me awake.

My head snapped up, my hair dripping, my heart pounding against my ribs like a trapped bird. The air was stale, smelling of old takeout and cheap air freshener.

"Chloe, get up! Are you deaf?"

I knew that voice. It was my brother, Liam. Entitled, lazy, and the source of all my misery.

I blinked, trying to clear the fog from my mind. This wasn't right. The last thing I remembered was the dark, damp cargo container, the smell of the sea mixed with gasoline, and the terrifying realization of what Liam had done. He had sold me. For money to pay off his gambling debts, he had sold his own sister to a human trafficking ring. I remembered the rough hands grabbing me, the shouting, then a sharp, blinding pain at the back of my head before everything went black.

I was supposed to be dead.

"Hurry up, Chloe," Liam whined, shoving a piece of paper in my face. "I need you to go to the bank and co-sign this loan for me. The new car I want isn't going to buy itself."

My eyes focused on his face, his smug, impatient expression. He looked younger, less hardened by the serious crimes he would eventually commit. I looked around the room. It was my old apartment, the one I had before I finally scraped enough money together to buy a house with my husband, Daniel. A house I later had to sell to cover one of Liam' s disasters.

My phone buzzed on the nightstand. I glanced at the date. It was three years ago. Three years before he would sell me. Three years before my life completely fell apart.

I was back. I had been given a second chance.

A cold rage, so pure and sharp it felt like a physical thing, rose up inside me. It drowned out the years of guilt, the heavy weight of our mother's dying wish.

"Always look after your brother, Chloe. Promise me."

That promise had been a chain around my neck, and I had let him pull on it until it strangled me. I lost my marriage, my savings, my home, and finally, my life.

Not again.

"Did you hear me?" Liam snapped, waving the loan application impatiently. "I don't have all day."

I slowly pushed myself up, my movements deliberate. I looked at him, really looked at him, for the first time without the filter of sisterly obligation. I saw a parasite, a selfish boy in a man' s body who saw me not as family, but as an endless bank account.

Then I did something I had never done in my entire life.

I slapped him.

The sound cracked through the quiet room, sharp and final. Liam stumbled back, his hand flying to his cheek, his eyes wide with disbelief.

"What the hell, Chloe?" he shrieked.

"No," I said, my voice low and steady. It felt foreign in my own ears, free of the usual strain and weariness. "I'm not signing anything. Not today. Not ever again."

"Have you lost your mind?" he sputtered, his shock turning to anger. "You promised Mom! You promised you'd take care of me!"

"Taking care of you and funding your pathetic, lazy lifestyle are two different things," I shot back, swinging my legs out of bed. "I'm done, Liam. I'm done being your personal ATM. I'm done cleaning up your messes."

He lunged forward, his face twisted in a snarl. He grabbed my arm, his fingers digging into my skin. "You don't get to be 'done'! You owe me! I'm your brother!"

"A brother doesn't sell his sister to traffickers for a hundred grand," I said calmly.

The blood drained from his face. He froze, his grip loosening. "What... what are you talking about? Are you crazy?"

He hadn't done it yet. Not in this timeline. But the idea was already there, festering in the dark corners of his mind. I could see it in his eyes, the flicker of fear and calculation. He couldn't understand how I knew, and that gave me all the power.

"Get out of my apartment," I said, my voice leaving no room for argument.

I pulled my arm free from his grasp. I walked to my closet, grabbed my purse and my keys, and didn't look back. I could feel his stunned, hateful stare on my back.

As I opened the front door, I paused.

"From now on, Liam," I said, turning to face him one last time. "You are on your own."

I walked out, slamming the door behind me, the sound echoing the final, satisfying crack of the chain that had bound me for so long. For the first time in years, I could breathe.