Chapter 2

The drive to my father' s new life was silent. He tried to make small talk once or twice, but my one-word answers quickly killed the conversation. I stared out the window of his Mercedes, the familiar suburban streets blurring into an unfamiliar landscape of wealth.

He didn't live in a house. He lived in what the real estate brochures would call a "luxury penthouse apartment." The doorman, dressed in a crisp uniform, greeted my father by name. The elevator was all glass and polished brass, ascending silently up thirty floors.

I held one strategic advantage over my father: he thought I was a fourteen-year-old girl, naive and easily manipulated. He had no idea he was dealing with a soul who had already been crushed by his negligence once and had no intention of letting it happen again. I was a ghost in his machine, and I would use that invisibility to my advantage.

The apartment was vast and sterile, all white walls, chrome fixtures, and floor-to-ceiling windows that offered a panoramic view of the city. It looked less like a home and more like a modern art gallery.

And standing in the center of it, as if she were the main exhibit, was Karel Sellers.

She was beautiful in a sharp, angular way. High cheekbones, a severe black bob, and eyes the color of a winter sky. She was wearing a simple but obviously expensive silk dress. She didn't smile when we walked in. Her gaze flickered over me, dismissive and cold, before settling on my father.

"You' re late," she said. Her voice was low and husky.

"Sorry, darling. Things took a little longer than expected," Clifton said, rushing to her side and kissing her cheek. He was like a different person around her-eager, solicitous, almost boyish.

"This is Blake," he announced, gesturing toward me.

Karel' s eyes met mine again. There was no warmth in them, only a cool, assessing curiosity, as if I were a piece of furniture that had been unexpectedly delivered. "Hello, Blake," she said, her tone flat. She made no move to shake my hand or offer any kind of welcome.

"Say hello to Karel, Blake," my father prompted, a hint of steel in his voice.

"Hello," I mumbled, keeping my eyes on the floor.

The air was thick with a tension I could have cut with a knife. My father, sensing the awkwardness, tried to play the cheerful host.

"Let me show you around, Blakey!" he said, using a childhood nickname that made my skin crawl.

Karel didn' t join us. She simply turned and walked over to a sleek, modern bar, pouring herself a glass of wine. Her message was clear: this was her space, and I was an intruder.

I followed my father through the apartment, my mind a cold, calculating machine. I wasn't looking at the decor; I was cataloging assets. The original paintings on the walls, the designer furniture, the state-of-the-art kitchen. This was a world away from the cramped, moldy apartment of my past life. This was a world away from the life my mother was about to be forced into.

My father had money. A lot of it. He' d inherited the family business after my grandfather' s death and had clearly been siphoning off funds for this new life for quite some time.

He led me down a hallway. "This is Karel' s studio," he said, pushing open a door.

The room was filled with easels, canvases, and the sharp, clean scent of turpentine. A half-finished painting stood on one of the easels, a chaotic splash of dark, violent colors.

"She' s a brilliant artist," my father whispered, his voice filled with a reverence that bordered on worship. "Her family... well, they destroyed her career. But I' m going to help her get it back. I' m going to fix everything."

He was obsessed with this narrative of rescuing her, of righting the wrongs of the past. It was a romantic fantasy he had built for himself, and he was the hero of the story.

I felt a sudden, violent urge to pick up a jar of black paint and hurl it against the pristine white wall. I wanted to destroy something, to mar the perfect, sterile beauty of this place. I clenched my fists, my nails digging into my palms, and forced the feeling down.

"And this," he said, opening the last door at the very end of the hall, "is your room."

It was the smallest room in the apartment, clearly meant to be a storage room or a small office. It had no window, only a single bed, a small desk, and a closet. It was a glorified cell.

"I know it' s not much," he said, running a hand through his perfectly styled hair. He had the grace to look slightly ashamed. "We... we weren' t really expecting you to... well, we can fix it up later."

He thought I would cry. He thought I would throw a tantrum. A normal fourteen-year-old would have.

But I was not a normal fourteen-year-old.

I dropped my single backpack on the floor. "It' s fine," I said, my voice carefully neutral. "Thank you."

His guilt was a tool, and I knew exactly how to use it. His relief at my compliance was palpable.

"You' re a good kid, Blake," he said, patting my shoulder awkwardly. "Look, I know this is an adjustment. I' ll... I' ll increase your allowance. How does five hundred a week sound? For clothes, whatever you need."

Five hundred a week. In my past life, my mother had worked eighty hours for less than that. The number registered in my brain not as a luxury, but as a weapon. Two thousand a month. Twenty-four thousand a year. It was a lifeline.

"Okay," I said, my voice small.

"Good. Good," he said, relieved to have solved the problem with money. It was the only way he knew how. He backed out of the room, eager to get back to Karel. "I' ll let you get settled in."

The door clicked shut, leaving me alone in the windowless box.

I stood in the center of the room, listening to the muffled sounds of my father' s laughter from the living room. I could hear the clink of their wine glasses.

I looked down at my hands. They were the hands of a fourteen-year-old girl, smooth and unblemished. But I could still feel the phantom sensation of bleach, the sting of raw, chapped skin.

A wave of nausea washed over me. I was my father' s daughter. I had his blood, his name. I was living in his house, accepting his money. The self-loathing was a bitter taste in the back of my throat.

I hated him. I hated Karel. But most of all, in that moment, I hated myself.

I walked into the attached bathroom, a tiny, sterile space. I turned on the tap and scrubbed my hands, scrubbing and scrubbing until the skin was red and raw. I had to get the feeling of him, of this house, of his money, off of me.

But it was no use. The stain was on the inside.

I looked at my reflection in the mirror. My face was pale, my eyes wide and dark. They were the eyes of a ghost.

I would play the part of the obedient, grateful daughter. I would take his money. And every single cent would go to my mother. I would build her a new life, a life free from him, a life free from the poverty he had condemned her to.

He thought he had won. He thought he had his perfect new life.

He had no idea that he had just let the Trojan horse into his city. And I would burn it to the ground from the inside out.