Chapter 2

Some of the guests watched me go, murmuring among themselves.

"That long-lost daughter the Farleys just took back has quite a background. If you ask me, the Farleys pushed this one too far today."

"Yeah, I've heard of her. Just some small-time street punk. What kind of waves can she really make?"

My parents and Antonia heard all of it too, but they only sneered.

Just like the guests said, a street punk, nothing more. How much trouble could someone like that stir up?

What they didn't know was that I wasn't some hungry-one-day, full-the-next little street girl. I was Reckless Sabina, the one who'd made the whole Downtown District of New York tremble.

Acknowledging the Farleys as my family was a favor to them.

I came to their house just to swallow this kind of treatment?

They all badly underestimated Sabina Farley.

The moment I walked out of the Farley mansion, I called one of my guys.

"Boss, weren't you off being a rich heiress? What do you have time to call me for?"

"Don't worry, the kids on Third Street and Sixth Alley all know you went off to play heiress. Every one of them's been keeping their heads down."

My voice came out cold. "Round everyone up. Every street leader on Third Street, every alley boss on Sixth. Anyone who doesn't show today can stop showing up for good."

The guy on the other end caught my tone and dropped the joking at once. "Got it, Boss."

Back at my home base, the heads of Third Street and Sixth Alley sat around me in a circle.

I laid out plainly what Antonia and my parents had done, then said nothing more.

"Damn it! The little Farley family really is done living!"

"Boss! I'll go hack every one of them down right now!"

A hulking man over six and a half feet tall, all quivering fat, shot to his feet and roared.

Another young man, pale-faced and refined, spoke up at once.

"What kind of world do you think this is? Still hacking and killing?"

"Boss called us together. She's obviously already made up her mind. What are you rushing for?"

Bruno Marsh bellowed. "Pretty Boy! If Boss hadn't saved you back then, you'd still be off farming in some backwater ditch right now!"

"Boss gets treated like this and you don't feel any heat at all?"

Julian Vance's face flushed. He shot up, worked up. "Say Pretty Boy to me one more time. Go on."

I waved a hand, irritated. "Both of you, sit down!"

"The Farleys want to play games with me, then I'll play along."

"They say I had an abortion? There's no smoke without fire. Go dig into it."

"And every one of the Farley freight depots—tomorrow you blockade the gates. If even one of their trucks makes it out, don't blame me for showing no mercy."

They nodded, grave, every set of eyes fiercer than the last.

That night, countless people from Third Street and Sixth Alley poured out.

What waited for the Farleys would be nothing short of ruin.

Early the next morning, before I'd even woken up properly, my phone rang.

"Sabina Farley! The Heads have officially announced they're calling off the engagement with the Farleys! Look at what you've done!"

"And now you're hiding? So you think it's shameful too, do you!"

"Get home right now. Mom and Dad are already getting ready to take you to apologize in person."

Antonia berated me over the phone like she was scolding some misbehaving kid.

"Antonia. The Farleys' housekeeper's daughter. Your dad's a security guard at some apartment complex. Your mom spent a few nights with Arthur Farley and now she really thinks she's some heiress?"

I called out Antonia's origins without a shred of politeness. That was what my people had dug up the night before.

The rage in her voice stalled, like a punctured ball. "Sabina—what are you talking about?"

"It's your business anyway. I was just being kind and giving you a heads-up. If you don't appreciate it, forget it."

Antonia hung up fast, but I had no intention of letting her off.

From start to finish, she was the one jumping back and forth in the middle of all this.

Now she realized she was wrong?

Too late.

【Ding-dong】

My phone chimed with a notification. A video.

In it, in a hospital corridor, a figure in a gray sun mask slipped furtively into the OB-GYN clinic.

Well, well. So it was the guilty one crying foul first.

And right then, my dad called.

I hesitated a moment, then picked up one second before it would have rung out on its own.