When Love Became Cruelty

e y

searched for Marcus Tho

vanished with his experim

vivors," the offi

er beli

uston house, the one

son Space Center, lived

ings dr

led daily, their vo

ifts at a 24-hour diner n

and desperation cl

search, a search everyo

last trea

s custom-bui

e mahogany tripod scarred,

, her father pointing out nebulae, wh

er gave her a fra

icket to Las Vegas

aCorp, Marcus' s employer, was auctioning his "pers

t for "c

ded to

of glittering diamo

heir laughter echoin

les out of place in he

horne Memoria

ght suits, some

housand dollars," th

hand

led throug

d again, her voic

bed. Twenty th

it. She barely h

eer' s gaze

ce, going

. She had to win. She

mooth and manicured

tu

in a VIP section she hadn'

. Wealthy, sop

ching a faint scar on

rcus.

h caught. Th

cool and amused

Sold her soul for a box of you

dn' t loo

a tenderness there Am

ain, the one supposedly f

Amy' s father' s "faul

meticulous air

family cost us, cost you," Marcu

er father's incompetence ru

d, a deep, n

tinued, a torre

h. A staged ejection

a

pay" for her father'

be with Izzy, who had

he lost home, the debt, the gn

calcula