nes would snap. I was struggling to breathe, the

concern, but a flicker of alarm, quickly masked by his usual cold

contempt. Then he said the words that wou

id of emotion. "So you will give her one. You will be a surrogate. You w

the sheer audacity, the cruelty of

amily destroyed her life, and this is how you're going

and revenge, only to have it taken away and given to someone who believed my

hrough the mud. A cold, hard resolve began to form in the pit of my stomach. If this was the price, if this

e to promise me. You will investigate Daniel Miller. You will find

ce, but he nodded. "When the child is bo

ng. But I had no other choice. It was a bargain m

the bed, my body moving on autopilot. I was completely numb, a puppet whose strings were bei

is quiet intensity. But I had overheard my father talking to a business associate. Ethan' s family was being targeted by a corporate rival-a ruthless comp

e I thought it would keep him safe from Daniel's orbit of destruction. I never told him

rom the world, nursing his perceived wound, and Daniel Miller had used that time to poison his mind