He Took Every Dollar—Until I Took Everything Back

Lena Torres wakes before dawn every day to bake peach pies from her late mother's recipe and sell them from a tiny cart on the streets of Atlanta. But no matter how hard she works, the money never stays hers. Her controlling stepfather, Dale Mercer, takes every dollar she earns, monitors her sales from across the street, and makes sure she remembers one rule: everything under his roof belongs to him. Then a stranger in an expensive suit buys a six-dollar peach pie with a hundred-dollar bill. His name is Marcus Reed, the CEO of a major hospitality group—and instead of offering Lena charity, he asks one unexpected question: "What's your margin?" That question opens a door Lena never expected. But Dale has spent years making sure she can never walk through one without him. What he doesn't know is that Lena has been quietly collecting photographs, bank statements, credit records, and legal documents for eight months. And hidden among her late mother's belongings may be proof of something far bigger than stolen cash. Dale thinks Lena is finally trying to escape. He has no idea she's preparing to find out what he took from her before she even knew it was hers.