Chapter 3

I went white with terror, threw myself down at Keith's feet, and clutched at his trouser leg with everything I had.

"Keith! Don't! I'm begging you, don't!"

"He's the only family I have left! Please! I was wrong, I was wrong!"

Keith kicked me away.

"Get off me!"

"Laurel Dickerson, you don't have a cent to your name. Every dollar keeping your father's ventilator running comes from me."

"If you'd just kept your head down, I could have bought him a little more time. I didn't think you'd be this ungrateful."

I lay on the floor, and the words dried up in my throat.

He was right.

Two hundred thousand a month. He paid all of it.

My father's life had been in his hands the whole time.

Fighting through the tearing pain in my ribs, I pushed myself up and knelt at his feet,

knocking my forehead against the floor, again and again.

"Please... please..."

"Punish me however you want... just spare my father..."

My vision started to blur. Blood from my forehead ran into my eyes.

Everything went black, and I collapsed on the floor.

When I woke, I was lying on the bed in the maid's room, wrapped in bandages.

I bolted upright, my ribs screaming like they were being split apart.

But I couldn't stop for that. I ran out barefoot and grabbed the maid in the living room.

"Where's Keith? Where is he!"

My red eyes startled her.

"Mr.... Mr. Gilbert's in the study."

I rushed to the study. The door was ajar.

Brenda's voice drifted out.

"The look on her face today... she really did seem to be in pain..."

Keith let out a cold laugh.

"What right does she have to be in pain?"

"When my sister was trapped in that fire, she heard the cries for help and turned and walked away."

"If you hadn't run in and saved my sister, she'd have been dead long ago."

"A woman as selfish as Laurel Dickerson, don't you think she deserves to be punished?"

Brenda gave a soft sigh.

"But you set up her family's bankruptcy, then arranged the car crash that hurt her parents... and now her father's dead too. She's already been punished."

Every drop of blood in me froze in that instant.

Dad... was dead after all.

My legs gave out, and I nearly dropped to my knees. I threw out a hand and gripped the wall to keep from falling.

Keith's voice climbed sharply.

"No! Nowhere near enough!"

"My sister had just gotten into a top school. Her whole future was bright, and now all she can do is lie in that bed!"

The crash, the bankruptcy, the deaths...

All the accidents I'd believed in had been engineered by his hand.

The taste of blood surged up in my throat.

I staggered back, clamped a hand over my mouth, turned, and ran.

I ran straight out into the late-night street.

I don't know how long I'd been running when a sharp pain exploded at the back of my head.

My whole body went limp.

When I came to again, I was tied up in a run-down factory.

A few masked men stood around me.

One of them crouched down and yanked a fistful of my hair.

"Call Keith Gilbert. Tell him we want ten million."