Chapter 4

Red Haven

I closed my fingers around the memory card before the nearest camera could catch the movement.

Dr. Lina lay motionless beyond the bars.

Blood darkened the collar of her white coat, but I could not tell whether she was breathing. Blake had left her in the corridor as a warning. If I called attention to her now, the guards would find what she had hidden.

So I did the hardest thing I had ever done.

I crawled away and pretended she meant nothing to me.

The basement lights went out at four in the morning.

I tore a narrow strip from the hem of my shirt, wrapped the memory card inside it, and pushed it beneath the bandage around my ribs. The pressure made my vision blur, but the card disappeared completely.

Everything inside.

Lina had risked her life to give me those words.

I would not waste them.

The next afternoon, Serena Voss returned to Halcyon Ridge.

She did not visit the dormitories this time. She went directly to Darius Cole’s office, where the blinds remained closed for almost an hour.

I was scrubbing the hallway outside when the door opened.

Serena stepped out with her phone pressed to her ear.

“Yes,” she said. “I understand what you want.”

A woman’s voice answered from the speaker, faint but unmistakable.

Celeste.

Serena glanced at me.

Her red lips curved into a smile.

“No,” she continued. “There won’t be anything left for him to find.”

My hand tightened around the cleaning cloth.

Serena ended the call and approached me.

“You’ve made a powerful woman nervous.”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“That’s better.” She touched the scar on my cheek. “You’re finally learning.”

I held her gaze.

“Did Celeste promise you Halcyon?”

Serena’s smile vanished.

Behind her, Darius shifted sharply.

I had guessed.

That frightened them more than any accusation could have.

Serena seized my jaw.

“You’re being transferred tonight.”

“Roman ordered me to stay here.”

“Roman Blackwood has already gone home.”

My heartbeat faltered.

“He wouldn’t leave without me.”

“He did.”

She released me with a shove.

“He signed his contract yesterday. By tomorrow, he’ll be back in Connecticut planning his wedding.”

The corridor seemed to narrow around me.

Roman had been close enough for me to see the silver at his cuff.

He had heard someone ask about me.

He had known I had not called Eleanor in more than a month.

And he had still gone home.

Serena leaned closer.

“You kept waiting for him to save you. That was your mistake.”

“No,” I whispered. “My mistake was believing he would.”

They moved me after midnight.

A hood covered my face. Plastic cuffs cut into my wrists. I counted every turn as the transport van descended from Halcyon Ridge.

Left.

Right.

Sharp incline.

Four minutes on broken pavement.

Then a highway.

The memory card dug into my ribs with every breath.

Six other women sat beside me, but no one spoke. One was crying silently. Another had a fever so severe that her body shook against my shoulder.

I could not help them yet.

But I could remember.

Twenty-three minutes after leaving the compound, the van stopped at a checkpoint. The driver opened his door, and the interior light flashed across the floor.

That was when I saw the tear in the seat beside me.

I worked my fingers beneath the lining of my coat and found my father’s signet ring.

A silver V surrounding a black stone.

The last thing I owned that still carried my name.

I pushed it deep into the torn seat.

Roman might not search for me.

But Gideon Shaw would.

My father’s former security chief had taught me never to leave only one trail. If the card was found, there would still be the ring. If the ring vanished, I would remember the road.

I closed my eyes and listened.

At the second checkpoint, the driver gave a name: Red Haven.

At the third, someone mentioned the eastern cliffs.

When the van finally stopped, I heard waves striking rock.

The hood was ripped from my head.

Red Haven Compound stood above a black stretch of ocean, surrounded by concrete walls and floodlights. Unlike Halcyon, it did not pretend to be a rehabilitation center. There were no signs, landscaped paths, or administrative brochures.

Only locked buildings and armed men.

Serena climbed out of the front passenger seat.

“Welcome to the end of the road.”

A guard pulled me from the van.

My injured leg buckled, but I caught myself before I fell.

Serena looked almost disappointed.

She led us into an intake room where every woman was searched. Shoes, bandages, and clothing were examined for hidden objects.

Panic climbed my throat when the guard reached for the dressing around my ribs.

“That one’s infected,” I said.

He paused.

“I can smell it from here. Tear it off if you want, but you’ll be cleaning whatever comes out.”

He cursed and waved me forward.

The card remained hidden.

They photographed us against a stained wall.

When my turn came, Serena stood behind the camera.

“What name should I put on your file?”

“You already know my name.”

“Names are for people someone intends to find.”

She entered a number instead.

A guard fastened a metal tag around my wrist.

“Get some sleep,” Serena said. “You’ll be working tomorrow.”

“What kind of work?”

“You were very popular on Halcyon’s private stream.”

My stomach turned.

Serena noticed.

“The viewers loved watching a spoiled heiress discover that her last name couldn’t save her.”

“They knew who I was?”

“Some of them.”

“Then there’s a record.”

Serena’s eyes narrowed.

“Of what?”

“Every payment. Every login. Every man who watched.”

She crossed the room and slapped me.

I tasted blood but smiled anyway.

For the first time, I had made her afraid.

“You think you’re leaving here with evidence?” she asked.

“I think you wouldn’t be this nervous if none existed.”

Serena grabbed my metal tag and pulled me close.

“Celeste was right about you.”

“What did she say?”

“That Roman would never stop choosing you as long as you were alive.”

There it was.

Not jealousy alone.

Fear.

Celeste did not merely want Roman’s attention. She needed me erased before she married him, before she placed herself inside Blackwood Holdings, and before anyone examined the Vale Trust Roman still controlled in my name.

Serena released the tag.

“Take her below.”

Two guards marched me through a steel door and down a staircase cut into the cliff.

The lower corridor smelled of salt, rust, and stagnant water. Locked rooms lined both sides. Somewhere in the darkness, a woman begged for help.

I counted the doors.

Eight on the left.

Seven on the right.

A camera at each end.

The guard pushed me into the last cell.

As the door closed, Serena’s voice followed me into the dark.

“Halcyon was the warning, Evelyn.”

The lock turned.

“This is where people disappear.”