VESPER POV
I woke up chained to a bed.
My wrists were locked in metal cuffs attached to the headboard. My ankles were free, but that didn't matter. The room had no windows. One door. Steel walls.
Panic hit me like ice water.
Kieran. He'd knocked me out. Taken me while the police arrested Callahan. While my husband—my monster husband—surrendered to save me.
And now I was here. Wherever here was.
The door opened.
Kieran walked in carrying a tray of food. He looked so much like Callahan it hurt. Same sharp features. Same mercury eyes. But where Callahan's eyes held controlled violence, Kieran's eyes held chaos.
"Good morning, sister-in-law." He set the tray on a table. "I brought breakfast. Eggs. Toast. Orange juice. All your favorites."
"How do you know my favorites?"
"I've been watching you. Just like my brother has. Except I've been watching both of you." He pulled up a chair beside the bed. "Did you know Callahan has cameras in every room of your penthouse? Including your bedroom. Including your bathroom. He's watched you shower, Vesper. Watched you sleep. Watched you cry when you thought you were alone."
My stomach turned. "You're lying."
"Am I?" Kieran pulled out a tablet. Started playing videos.
Me. In my bedroom. Getting dressed. Five years of footage. Different days. Different outfits. Always the same secret camera angle.
I was going to be sick.
"He's obsessed with you," Kieran said softly. "Has been since before you signed that contract. Did he tell you how he chose you?"
"Stop—"
"He saw you at MIT. You were giving a presentation on economic theory. He was there recruiting someone else entirely. But then he saw you. Brilliant. Beautiful. Fierce. He became obsessed. Started following you. Learning everything about you. Then he discovered your father's company was failing. He saw his opportunity."
"No—"
"He destroyed your father on purpose. Bought the debt. Created the exact situation where you'd be desperate enough to sign his contract. He engineered your entire life, Vesper. Every choice you thought you made? He made it for you."
Tears burned my eyes. "Why are you telling me this?"
"Because you deserve to know what he is. What he's done." Kieran leaned closer. "My brother is a monster. He's killed forty-three people with his own hands. Ordered the deaths of hundreds more. He's built an empire on fear and blood. And he's been using you as his perfect cover. His innocent wife who knows nothing. His alibi."
"If he's so terrible, why do you want revenge? Why not just let the police have him?"
Kieran's expression went cold. "Because prison is too easy. I want him to suffer. I want him to lose everything he loves the way he let me lose everything I loved." He touched my face. I jerked away. "And you, dear Vesper, are what he loves most."
"He doesn't love me. It's a contract—"
"You still don't see it, do you?" Kieran laughed. "The way he looks at you. The way he killed twelve men in ninety seconds to save you. The way he surrendered—The Architect, who's never surrendered to anyone—just to protect you. That's not a contract. That's obsession. That's love. That's weakness."
My heart was hammering. "What do you want from me?"
"I want you to help me destroy him."
"Never."
"Never?" Kieran raised an eyebrow. "He's lied to you for five years. Controlled your life. Watched you without permission. Killed people in your name. And you're still loyal to him?"
"I'm not loyal to him. I'm—" I stopped. What was I? Confused. Terrified. Angry. But also... "I'm not helping you."
"Not even to save your father?"
My blood froze. "What?"
Kieran pulled out his phone. Showed me a video.
My father. Tied to a chair. Bruised. Bleeding. A man stood behind him holding a gun to his head.
"Dad!" I screamed.
"He's alive. For now." Kieran paused the video. "But if you don't cooperate, Theron Vex will kill him. Slowly. Painfully. Just like he's been planning for years."
"Theron Vex? Why does he want my father?"
"Because your father knows something. Something about the night my parents were murdered. Something about who really killed them." Kieran's voice dropped. "And Theron wants that information buried. Forever."
My mind raced. "What does my father know?"
"That's what we're going to find out. Together. You're going to call Callahan. Tell him you'll trade yourself for the information your father has. When Callahan comes—and he will come—we'll be waiting."
"He's in police custody—"
Kieran laughed. "You really think a jail cell can hold The Architect? He'll escape within hours. He'll come for you. He always does."
The door opened again. A woman entered. Tall. Silver hair. The same woman from the warehouse.
Celestine Vex.
"Is she ready?" Celestine asked.
"Almost." Kieran stood. "Vesper, this is Celestine. Theron's mother. She's going to help us."
Celestine smiled. It was the coldest smile I'd ever seen. "Hello, dear. I have a gift for you."
She held up a phone. My phone. The one Kieran's men had taken.
"We recovered this from the warehouse rubble. Interesting what we found in your text messages. Particularly the ones from five years ago. The night you signed Callahan's contract."
She showed me the screen.
Messages between me and an unknown number from five years ago:
Unknown: Your father's debt is $10 million. He has three days before bankruptcy.
Me: I don't have that kind of money.
Unknown: I do. I'll pay his debt. In exchange, you marry me for five years.
Me: Who is this?
Unknown: Someone who can save your father. Or destroy him. Your choice.
I remembered these messages. Remembered the terror. The desperation. The impossible choice.
But then Celestine scrolled further. To messages I'd never seen before. Messages that appeared after I'd fallen asleep that night.
Me: I'll do it. I'll marry you.
Unknown: Excellent. Contract attached. Sign and return.
Me: How do I know you'll actually pay the debt?
Unknown: Because I'm the one who bought it. I own your father's debt. I own him. I own you. Sign the contract, Vesper. You have no other choice.
"I didn't write those," I whispered. "I never sent those messages."
"No," Celestine agreed. "Callahan did. He had access to your phone. He sent messages from your number to himself. Made it look like you were eager to sign. Like you initiated everything."
She scrolled further. More messages. Weeks of them. All sent while I slept. Messages making me sound desperate. Greedy. Willing to do anything for money.
"He fabricated evidence that you married him for money," Celestine said. "So if you ever tried to break the contract, he could destroy you. Publicly. Completely. He planned everything, dear. Every single detail."
My chest felt hollow. Empty. "He... he set me up?"
"He owned you before you ever signed that contract." Celestine put the phone away. "Now. Are you ready to help us destroy the man who destroyed you?"
I looked at the video of my father. Beaten. Bleeding. Waiting to die.
I looked at Kieran. At his mercury eyes that should have been Callahan's eyes. Brothers torn apart by violence.
I looked at my own hands. Still wearing the wedding ring I'd put back on. The ring with a tracker that led Callahan straight to me every time.
The ring that was probably tracking me right now.
"I'll help you," I whispered. "But on one condition."
"What condition?"
I met Kieran's eyes. "When Callahan comes to save me—because he will come—I want to be the one who faces him. I want to be the one who asks him why. Why he did all of this. Why he destroyed my life."
Kieran smiled. "Deal."
Celestine unlocked my chains. "Welcome to the team, Vesper."
I rubbed my wrists where the cuffs had bitten into skin. "When do we start?"
"Right now." Kieran handed me a phone. "Call your husband. Tell him you're safe. Tell him not to come after you. Tell him it's over."
I took the phone. Dialed the number I'd memorized five years ago.
It rang once.
"Vesper." Callahan's voice was raw. Desperate. "Are you hurt? Where are you? I'm coming—"
"Don't," I said. My voice was steady. Cold. "Don't come for me, Callahan."
Silence. Then: "What did they do to you?"
"They showed me the truth. All of it. The messages. The manipulation. Everything you did to trap me."
"Vesper, I can explain—"
"I don't want your explanations. I want a divorce."
The silence on the other end was deafening.
"You don't mean that," Callahan said finally.
"Yes. I do. The contract is void. We're done. Don't contact me again."
I hung up.
Kieran was grinning. "Perfect. Now he'll come in angry. Desperate. Unfocused. Easier to trap."
Celestine nodded approvingly. "Well done."
I stared at the phone in my hand.
At the screen showing Callahan's name.
And I felt the tracker in my wedding ring pulse once against my finger.
Because I hadn't taken it off.
I was still wearing it.
Still letting him find me.
Kieran and Celestine didn't notice. They were too busy planning.
But I knew.
In exactly three hours, Callahan would know my location.
And then everything would explode.
The question was: whose side was I really on?
I didn't know anymore.