again, very low. "Pl

owered her phone with the satisfied look of a cat that had just caught something small and frightened. She w

voice came out surpri

the security desk pretended to study their screens. A lobby full of employees preten

orty floors of sile

epsister paid my ex-boyfriend five thousand dollars to get me ba

't care wh

what i

it for her. For years they have been waiting for me to make a mistake, a weakness, a soft sp

walked into his office

a pawn,"

N

game I did not kn

and started again. "You are the one person in this building I would ne

because my hands had started to shake. "You said you know where Daniel works. You

a normal

otic

most missed it. It hurt to s

re afraid. I have not been that angry since I was a boy. I did not mean an

re, big and tense in the middle of his gleaming office, hands clenched at his sides lik

If someone bothers me, I'll tell you

ree

get to decide

aid, in the voice of a man w

ria

id ag

enly exhausted. The city glittered below, tiny and far away

e shelf sat something small and silver that did not belong with them. A music box. Ol

y," I said. "

blank, the way a house goes dark when someb

sorry, I

he little box with both hands, and wound the key on

thin, silvery me

ange, as though somebody had pressed a hand against an old bruise I did not know I had. Before I even tho

t a second later, exac

an f

d. I don't know why I did that.

a moment, I thought he might say something, and I saw a word ris

the lid, and th

the box back on the shelf with his back to me. "Y

ag, I could have sworn I saw him press

where I had gone to splash water on my face, when I heard

't know yet. Not

d with my han

d to his ear. He had lost every trace of his usual laugh. His shoulde

more weeks." A pause. "If Adrian finds out I've been looking

hind the door before he could look

did not want Adri

ing, he did not wa

d there in the empty corridor, and I thought, with a cree

that evening, the pho

it to a blogger, who sent it to the internet. It showed Adrian Blackwood, billionaire CEO, standing in the lobby of his

alf away, but my hair and my mole wer

GIRLFRIEND? BLACKWOOD HEIR FIGH

A gold digger. A nobody. She must be good in bed. Gina h

wn on the kitchen table a

ll

. Her coat was half off one shoulder, and she was hol

you?" s

He was only helping me. There was

ackwood boy? Ad

, bu

e pulled to its limit. All the color had left her face. "

It's Blackwood Group. Y

fice." She set the tablet on the table. Her

at her.

n, and I want you to stay away from that man and

d the money. Noah's school fees

ill m

g? Adrian hasn't

my entire life. Not when Dad died. Not when the bills piled up. Not even when the doctor said Noah might

something when

hundred dark possibilities crowded my mind. Then her eyes slid away to th

he whispered. "That is

door click shut, and then, very faintly, the sound of a drawer being opened. A

he silence

the Blackwoods. And whatever it