e drafting table. Her stomach twisted into tight, painful knots. She coul
row creased with concern. "Are you in trouble?" she a
loorboards to hide the raw panic swimming in her eye
e her flinch so hard she knocked her pencil to the floor.
rete stairwell, her footsteps echoing in the cold, gray shaft, and ducked in
terical scream pierced right through the speake
ing off the concrete walls. "The hospital gave us the final notice! If we don't pay today, the
lia choked out, her throat so ti
, her voice rising to a glass-shattering pitch. "You
led. She slid down the freezing concrete wall, the rough surface scraping her back, until she hit the cold
her ear like a death knell. The weight of the entire wor
e burner number. An address. A high-end penthouse in Manhatta
fter: Be here at 8 PM for your medica
r veins. He was the middleman. The facilitator. He was going to force her into t
ake. But the image of her father-pale and dying on a hospital bed, an oxygen tube un
ids. She bit down on her lower lip so hard she tasted they. No matter what. No ma
and saved the address
littered around her-yellow cabs, well-dressed couples, the distant wail of sirens. She wore a cheap, over
lobby. The space was all black marble and gold accents, dripping with cold luxury. The security guard behind the polished desk-a
oom number, her vo
shifting from contempt to extreme, almost fearful respect. He swiped a keycard wit
Emilia's stomach lurch violently. Her palms were slick w
ick, expensive carpet that swallowed her footsteps. Every step felt like walking barefoot on
and pressed the doorbell. The buzz sounded
icked open automatically, the sou
y. A blast of frigid air mixed with the faint, expensive
-to-ceiling windows. Clifton stood with his back to her, pouring a drink at the wet bar. He
around. He swirled the amber liquid in h
ed by the door. He looked at her like a predat
red, his voice cold
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