Julian turned.

“What do you mean, Dad?”

“Once that money arrives and the project goes ahead, you’ll be our new CEO. Stella has no further use. Why let her come back and make trouble for you?”

Richard didn’t know his son had already killed me.

It wouldn’t have changed anything.

An adoptive daughter without value was more useful dead than alive.

I looked at his cold face.

They really did belong together.

A family of selfish, poisonous animals.

Julian still managed to look troubled.

“She’s my wife. I can’t be that heartless.”

Did he have some compulsive need to perform?

Even now, he was playing the devoted husband.

“Enough.” Richard’s voice hardened. “If you want to keep that position, Stella must never return to Fairhaven.”

“Yes, Dad.”

As Julian turned away, the reluctant sorrow vanished.

Cold satisfaction replaced it.

He wanted everything.

The rewards of cruelty and a spotless reputation.

After leaving the company, he drove to the care home.

The one where they were holding my mother.

He went straight to a private patient building and opened a door.

Voss lay in the bed, beaten half to death, both broken legs elevated in casts.

No sign of the mysterious man.

I was disappointed.

At the sight of Julian, Voss struggled upright.

“Mr. Whitmore, I didn’t betray you. I didn’t tell him anything.”

“Shh.”

Julian put a finger to his lips.

He approached with an expression full of concern and guilt.

“Of course I believe you. This was my mistake. I didn’t expect that lunatic to target you. I’m sorry you suffered because of me.”

Voss slowly settled against the pillow.

But his eyes never left Julian.

Fear lingered in them.

I frowned.

He was more frightened of Julian than of Lucian.

Julian pulled up a chair.

“Tell me exactly what happened after he took you. Everything he did. Everything he asked. Don’t leave out a word.”

“Yes.”

Voss began.

Julian listened quietly, occasionally making notes with a pen.

His expression was gentle and harmless.

When Voss finished, he tore the page from the pad and stood.

“You did well. Rest here and recover.”

“Mr. Whitmore!”

Voss grabbed his arm.

One cold glance made him withdraw his hand.

“Tomorrow is the day my mother gets her medicine. Please don’t forget. Without it, even for one day, she’ll wish she were dead.”

I understood.

Julian controlled his mother’s life.

That was how he controlled Voss.

The doctor had considerable ability, but he came from a poor family. His father died young. His mother had raised him alone.

Greedy and morally bankrupt as he was, he was devoted to her. Almost blindly so.

It sounded as though Julian had used some addictive drug to trap her.

“Don’t worry.” Julian smiled. “Get well. You’ll be home with your mother soon.”

Outside, the smile froze.

He called the hoarse-voiced man again.

“Voss has no further use. Dispose of him. Leave nothing to find.”

I stared at his back.

A human life meant no more to him than an ant beneath his shoe.

When had the man I adored become so rotten?

Perhaps he had always been this way.

Perhaps he had simply hidden the smell of decay well enough to fool everyone.

I didn’t follow him out.

Instead, I concentrated on my mother.

When I opened my eyes, I was in her room.

What I saw broke me.

Iron restraints fastened her thin limbs to the four corners of the bed. She must have fought them desperately. Large patches of skin were missing from her wrists.

A heavyset nurse in her forties or fifties was forcing medicine into her mouth.

“How is this crazy old bitch so strong? Every dose is a fight.”

My mother struggled, her hair tangled around her ravaged face.

Then she turned her head, eyes rolling, and forced herself to vomit the medicine back up.

Some splashed onto the nurse’s arm.

The woman recoiled in disgust.

She grabbed a stun baton and pressed it against my mother.

“Try that again. Mrs. Whitmore said I can do whatever I like if you won’t behave, as long as I don’t kill you.”

My mother convulsed.

“No!”

I screamed at the nurse.

“Stop!”

She increased the current.

Her face shook with cruel satisfaction.

“You’ll learn. In here, you do what I say.”

“I said stop!”

Perhaps my hatred was too strong.

The whole room began to shake.

Cracks spread across the window.

Then it exploded.

Glass flew everywhere.

The nurse dropped the baton and ran out, shouting for help.

I went to my mother and knelt beside her.

Tears wouldn’t stop falling.

“Please, Mom. Don’t fight them. Not like this. You’re the one they hurt. Stay alive. If only for me, please stay alive.”

I bowed my head to the floor.

“I’m sorry. I’m useless. I can’t take care of you in this life. Let me be your daughter again in the next one. I’ll look after you. I’ll never leave you.”

Slowly, I stood.

My mother was staring through the broken window.

I followed her gaze.

A nest rested among the branches outside.

A mother bird had returned with food. Tiny heads rose, beaks open, waiting for her.

My mother smiled.

A faint, tender smile.

She must have been imagining finding me. Imagining the day we would finally recognize each other.

I closed my eyes, unable to bear it.

Julian and Vivian had taken even that from us.

We hadn’t had a single day together.

My hatred reached a height I hadn’t known was possible.

When I had gathered myself, I returned to Lucian.

Julian was waiting for Mr. L’s money to secure his appointment.

But Lucian was no generous benefactor. He wasn’t going to hand him eight point four billion for nothing.

There had to be a bigger trap.

The investment was bait.

I wanted to be there when Julian fell into it.

I wanted to watch his dream break.