I knew Redwood Bank.

One of the country’s four largest banks.

Its chairman had connections far beyond finance. Three members of the Sterling family held cabinet posts.

Normally, Julian wouldn’t even have been important enough to stand in line to offer a man like him a toast.

Yet Theodore Sterling had personally secured his release.

There was only one explanation I could see.

Julian had arranged Tessa’s murder and supplied her liver.

No wonder he could give K orders.

I had thought he merely hired the man to dispose of my body.

Now I wondered whether he was K’s employer.

The more I considered it, the darker it became.

An entire operation.

Choose people with no protection. Orphans. The poorest and most vulnerable.

Find the best matches.

Take living organs for wealthy, powerful clients.

Sell those who weren’t selected into places like Veyra and Marava, where buyers inspected them like animals.

I was beyond anger.

If I could drag Julian into hell with me, I would give up any chance of another life.

I left Lucian and went to him.

I wanted to see how much more evil he had done.

He wasn’t at home or the office.

He was at the care home where they kept my mother.

As always, he was immaculate.

Soft, pale colors. A gentle, harmless appearance.

The dog that bit didn’t need to bark.

He crossed an empty corridor and entered the room at the end.

Pearl was inside.

In a hospital gown.

She paced with her phone, frantically reading the news. Broken objects littered the floor. Apparently, she had already smashed everything within reach.

She looked up and rushed to him.

“What am I going to do? Those old pictures are everywhere. Lucian knows I have Stella’s skin.”

She touched her face, eyes darting.

“He’s insane. He nearly killed me. People are saying I murdered her.”

She clung to him.

“I didn’t know it was hers when I had the surgery. And you sent the instructions. You told me to go to Lucian last night. You can’t abandon me.”

Julian.

He had sent her.

I stared at him as though I had never seen him before.

He knew what Vivian had done on my eighteenth birthday.

Knew she had drugged me and offered me to that man.

And he knew Lucian had saved me.

I had already given up expecting humanity from him.

Still, he kept finding ways to be worse.

“How low can you go?”

“Don’t panic. I’m here.”

He took Pearl by the shoulders and bent to meet her eyes.

“You’re my sister. Of course I’ll take care of you.”

I gave a cold laugh.

I knew that warm expression.

That reassuring voice.

Nineteen years of it had ended with my heart in his chest.

“Make a video. Tell people you have a psychiatric condition and need inpatient treatment. Leave the rest to me.”

He stroked her head.

“Stay here for a while. A month at most. When things settle down, I’ll arrange some charity appearances and an art award. Your reputation will recover completely.”

She finally relaxed.

“Thank God for you. I thought this would ruin me.”

“Don’t be silly. What are brothers for?”

She clenched her teeth.

“Lucian is impossible. He won’t listen to anything. He’s like a rabid dog. He almost killed me.”

A cold light passed through Julian’s eyes.

“He is becoming a problem.”

I heard the threat beneath it.

Was he planning to move against Lucian?

If Pearl couldn’t bring him onto their side, Julian would remove the obstacle.

Once, I would have considered that laughable.

Now I knew what he was doing.

How many men like Theodore Sterling owed him something?

He had built powerful connections out of stolen organs.

And he was so good at making people pity him. The police and the public trusted him.

Lucian’s reputation couldn’t have been more different.

A bad feeling settled inside me.

“Julian.”

Pearl bit her lip and looked nervously around the room.

“Did you really… kill Stella?”

He lied without a pause.

“Even you doubt me?”

He looked wounded.

“She was in a terrible car accident. They couldn’t save her. You’re my sister. That’s why I agreed to let them take the skin from the woman I loved and give it to you.”

His voice seemed heavy with pain.

“So she could live again in another woman I love.”

I could only stare.

He actually sounded wronged.

Pearl believed him.

“I’m sorry. I won’t doubt you again.”

She obediently prepared to record her statement.

Before filming, a makeup artist arrived to make her look pale and ill.

Julian stepped outside.

He made a call from an empty part of the corridor.

Soon, a doctor in a white coat hurried over.

“Mr. Whitmore.”

“Dr. Harlan, thank you for looking after my sister.”

Julian gave him a small white bottle.

“She’s been taking this since she was overseas. Crush it and mix it into the restorative broth she has every day.”

The doctor examined the label.

“This is a new neurological drug. It has a strong effect on the brain. In a healthy person, it can cause severe mental disturbance.”

He looked uncertain.

“Are you sure she should have it?”

Julian frowned.

“I’m her brother. Do you think I would hurt her?”

“No, of course not. I’m simply concerned. If something happens to her, I’ll be responsible.”

“Do as I said. I’ll take responsibility.”

“Yes, sir.”

The doctor left with the bottle.

I stayed there, looking at Julian as though he were a devil.

No.

Worse.

He was going to make his own sister truly ill.

She had guessed what he did to me. She had nearly admitted the truth to Lucian.

If she lost her mind, nobody would believe her.

I looked back at her closed door.

She thought she would leave in a month.

She might never leave again.

I didn’t pity her.

She was hardly innocent.

But we had both trusted Julian when he pushed us into the abyss.

For that, I felt a terrible sadness.