3
My head snapped up. Two bodyguards were dragging my parents into the courtyard. My mother’s hair was disheveled, and a trickle of blood ran down my father’s temple.
“Dad! Mom!”
“Let them go!” I roared, scrambling to crawl toward them, but Isabelle’s foot pressed down harder on my back, pinning me to the ground.
She crouched, yanking my hair back. “Fine! Release my brother first! Or you can watch me turn your parents into living torsos, piece by piece!”
“Miss, please,” my mother sobbed, her body trembling. “Our Aria is a good girl… she’s not a con artist! She would never do something like this!”
“Not a con artist?!” Isabelle snatched an iron rod from one of the guards and brought it down hard on my father’s leg.
A sharp crack echoed through the yard, followed by my father’s agonized scream. The shock sent my moth-
er into a dead faint.
“Dad!” I tried to crawl forward, but Isabelle’s heel dug deeper into my spine. She used the iron rod to lift my father’s chin. “Your daughter kidnapped my brother for money. As her parents, you share the blame. If she won’t talk, you will.”
My father, though contorted in pain, glared at her. “You…. monster… my daughter would never…”
Alk
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Chapter 1
“Still stubborn?” She swung the rod again, breaking his other leg.
He let out a choked gasp, his shirt instantly soaked with cold sweat.
12.03
Just as Isabelle was about to use the rod to pry open his mouth, the sound of a powerful car engine cut through the air. A man in a tailored suit strode into the courtyard, followed by four imposing bodyguards. The sheer force of his presence made Isabelle’s men tense up instinctively.
“Marcus Austin? What are you doing here?” Isabelle frowned, her voice laced with hostility.
The Austin and Kinsman families had been business rivals for a decade, and Marcus was the competitor she despised most.
Marcus didn’t even look at her. His gaze fell on me. Seeing the blood on my wrist and the scene of carnage
on the ground, his brow furrowed. He signaled his men, who effortlessly pushed Isabelle aside and helped
me to my feet.
“Ms. Vance,” he said, his voice calm and steady. “I’ve come to request your services.”
Isabelle let out a shrill, piercing laugh. “Marcus, are you blind, or did you just hit your head? The whole city
knows this woman is a charlatan who cons people out of their money. Is the Austin family fortune so vast
you can afford to throw it away on gutter trash like her?”
She suddenly lashed out, kicking me in the knees. I crumpled to the ground, my chin hitting the stone pavers
with a sickening crack. The taste of blood flooded my mouth.
“Take a good look at her!” Isabelle shouted at Marcus, her foot pressing down on my back. “Yesterday she was picking through rotten vegetables at the farmer’s market, and today she’s playing at being a Tracker? I bet she couldn’t even find her own parents’ graves!”
Marcus’s jaw tightened. “Isabelle, watch your mouth.”
“My mouth?” She laughed as if he’d told a joke, then grabbed my hair and shoved my face toward him. “You’ re pinning your hopes on this? I bet your niece was kidnapped by a fraud just like her! For all you know, she’s being sold to a brothel right now to pay this bitch’s bills!”
My father, trembling with rage, tried to push himself up. “You’re lying! My daughter is not-”
Isabelle backhanded him across the face with the iron rod. Blood streamed from the corner of his mouth. “- Shut up, old man! She doesn’t have any real gift! Her parents probably raised her on money they scammed from a marriage proposal! This whole family is a brood of vipers!”
Marcus’s face turned to stone. “Isabelle, that’s enough.”
She just laughed, pulling a crumpled ball of paper from her pocket and tossing it at his feet. “I found this under her bed this morning! Probably her little book of scams.”
It was actually a collection of recipes my mother had written for me. Mangled as it was, it could be whatever she claimed it to be.
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“Oh, Marcus, Marcus,” she taunted. “Your niece has been missing for three days. Was she taken by one of your enemies? You must be truly desperate to turn to a fraud like this. Then again, I suppose the great Austin family can’t afford a decent private investigator anymore. Oh, that’s right, you’re on the verge of bankruptcy, aren’t you? Ever since your father’s failed investment last year, you’ve practically had to mortgage the family
estate!”
“Enough!” Marcus’s voice was as cold as ice.
But Isabelle was reveling in her cruelty. “Did I strike a nerve? It’s pathetic, really. Ignoring the police to hire a psychic who claims she can find people by sniffing their underwear. The whole city will laugh at you! Your niece would be better off dead than being used in a scam by this parasite!”
She raised her foot and stomped down hard on my hand. The sound of bone crunching mixed with my own cry of pain. “Talk! Did you sell my brother off already? Are you trying to scam the Austins now, too? I’m telling you, if you don’t produce my brother today, I’ll strip you naked, hang you from the gate, and let every stray
dog and homeless man in this city have a taste-”
Her phone began to ring, shrill and insistent.
Her voice trembled as she answered it. “Hello? … What?… No, that’s impossible! You’re mistaken!”
Whatever was said on the other end made her let out a terrified scream. The phone slipped from her grasp
and hit the ground, the screen shattering into a spiderweb of cracks.
Isabelle scrambled to her feet and bolted, shoving Marcus hard as she ran past him. “Marcus, you watch this
bitch for me! If a single hair on her head is out of place, I’ll gouge out your niece’s eyes and use them as
marbles!”
Marcus waved a hand, and his bodyguards immediately moved forward, carefully helping me to my feet. “-
Ms. Vance, let me get you and your parents to a hospital.”
Meanwhile, Isabelle raced home.
She burst through the living room doors to find Elder Kinsman collapsed on the sofa. On the mahogany table
before him sat a black box, its edges dripping with a dark, reddish liquid.
“Grandfather!”
She lunged forward. The box tipped and fell, and a severed hand rolled out onto the floor.
On the inside of the wrist, a lopsided sun tattoo seared itself into her vision. She’d taken Shane to get it two years ago. He had been so afraid of the pain, he’d cried and squeezed her hand for half an hour, causing the artist to botch the design.
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Chapter 2
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