Chapter 4 - The Poisoned Apple
Sadie bit the inside of her cheek until she tasted copper.
She forced her face into a mask of total blankness, praying the scarred enforcer wouldn't recognize the terrified girl from four years ago.
The man, introduced only as Silas, gave her a curt nod, his eyes showing no immediate sign of recognition.
Sadie practically fled back to the East Wing, her mind racing with the impossible danger she had just trapped herself inside.
When she returned to the matriarch’s room, Eleanor was waiting by the window.
The old woman’s eyes were sharp, evaluating Sadie with a new, dangerous level of trust.
Eleanor raised her hands and used the secret code once more.
She signed that Liam’s ledger was still hidden somewhere inside the house.
Sadie’s breath hitched.
Liam had bled to death in her arms, clutching a single torn page of numbers and begging her to tell his mother he wasn't lost.
He had warned her that the ledger contained the names of the dirty cops and rival bosses who had orchestrated his murder.
Eleanor signed again, her face grim.
She warned Sadie not to trust Ronan.
Before Sadie could ask why, Eleanor’s hands formed a frantic new sentence.
She signed that the wolves were already at the door, and they knew about the little girl.
Panic seized Sadie’s chest like a vice.
She checked the wall clock, realizing with horror that it was already three in the afternoon.
Poppy would be getting off the school bus in exactly twenty minutes.
Sadie pulled out her cheap phone, her fingers shaking violently as she dialed the school’s front office.
The line rang endlessly before a tired secretary finally answered.
Sadie begged them to hold Poppy at the gate, saying she would be late to pick her up.
The secretary’s confused voice crackled through the speaker.
She told Sadie that Poppy had already been picked up early.
The secretary cheerfully added that the nice man in the black SUV said Sadie had sent him.
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Sadie dropped the phone onto the hardwood floor.
It shattered, the screen spider-webbing exactly like her life.
