ella

he deafening silence that had fallen over my parents. My father, Arturo, stared at the peeling wallp

nsure they never looked back at the Hobbs family

painted a severe drug addict as a prince. She knew exactly what Elzada Velasquez's son was. She knew they needed a disposable girl from the slums to act

humiliation and Bette's venomous sneers, believing that her subservience would eventually earn us a sliver of protection. Realizing that her own family viewed

s wrapping around her trembling frame. When he looked up at me, the subservient posture of

know how to hide money, and I know how to survive. We don't need Dolphus Hobbs' table scraps to live." He tightened his grip on my

hardening into something I had never seen before-courage. Sh

ng but absolute. "Even if it means we have to face the Romero family's Selection Ga

he hardest battle-saving my parents f

ing her hand before stepping bac

nd comfort in each other. The hallway was dim and freezing, th

el

ld sister was clutching her worn stuffed bear, her large, dark eyes wide with a ma

ging myself to her eye level. "

rce. "I'm going to learn how to shoot," she whispered, her voice deadly serious. "I'm going to grow up fast, and I'

fierce protectiveness in her vow struck a c

ing up to smooth her messy hair. "You don'

ch of gasoline and mold filled my nostrils. I felt the blistering, agonizing heat of the underground cell at the Velasquez estate

ed on

ash in that gilded cage, weeping for a mother who had already died o

he hallway. The gentle sister Abby was hugging was a

ess Capos gather. I would walk into the heart of the Romero estate, and I wou

as the only law