I dreamed for a long time.

Thorns covered the Steps of Passage.

Lucian climbed on his knees.

I rushed to stop him.

My hands grew wet.

I looked down.

Blood.

His blood.

“No!”

I opened my eyes in a hospital bed.

An IV ran into the back of my right hand.

My head throbbed as I pushed myself up.

The man who saved me.

Could it have been Lucian?

No.

Impossible.

Footsteps approached.

I lay back and closed my eyes.

A doctor examined me.

“Still unconscious, Director. The fever’s down. Nothing serious beyond superficial injuries. Who is she? You came to check on her personally.”

“How would I know? The man who brought her is important. The younger Blackwood son.”

My hand tightened in the bedding.

Younger son?

I thought Lucian was an only child.

The doctor asked it for me.

“Aren’t the Blackwoods all about Lucian?”

He lowered his voice.

“I heard something happened to him in Fairhaven. His family dispatched three private planes to bring him back to Northbridge. Sent him to Evergreen Medical Retreat.”

So something had happened.

My chest hurt.

I wasn’t in Fairhaven anymore.

Northbridge.

The Blackwoods’ ancestral base in America.

With my current identity, reaching Lucian here would be even harder.

“There’s more to that family than people know,” the director said. “His father had a childhood sweetheart. They stayed in touch. Had a son outside the marriage.”

The doctor listened eagerly.

“He lived abroad for years. Quietly. But he has an extraordinary eye for business. Made a fortune nobody can properly measure. Returned quite publicly a few days ago. Dorian. That’s his name.”

“If he brought her himself, they must be close.”

“Who knows? Rich men have their tastes.”

I could feel the director looking me over.

Contempt slipped into his voice.

“Maybe he went too far and dropped her at a hospital to clean up the mess.”

So much for his bedside manner.

That explained the resemblance.

Lucian’s half-brother.

Dorian had brought me to a hospital.

At least he didn’t seem entirely bad.

I waited until they left.

Then opened my eyes.

Evergreen.

I had to get there.

I removed the IV and climbed out of bed.

A bag beside it held clean clothes.

I looked down at what I was wearing.

Dirty rags.

After a moment, I took the bag into the adjoining bathroom.

The mirror showed me my new body.

Nora looked younger than twenty.

Prematurity and malnutrition had left her small enough to pass for a schoolgirl.

Old and new bruises covered her pale skin.

No wonder the director had reached such an ugly conclusion about Dorian.

I knew better.

Her adoptive parents had done this.

“I’ll make them pay. Every injury. Twice over.”

I studied the delicate face that looked nothing like mine.

Large, soft eyes.

Where Nora’s innocence had once looked vacant, my awareness was beginning to show.

Clear.

Hard.

After showering and changing, I slipped out of the ward.

I needed money.

I had nothing.

Even reaching Evergreen would be difficult.

“You little bitch. There you are. I’ll beat you to death.”

The voice was sharp enough to hurt.

This body began trembling before I could stop it.

I turned.

A heavy-faced middle-aged woman charged toward me.

Doreen.

Nora’s adoptive mother.

The woman who had stolen her life.

I watched her furious face.

Then the gold pendant swinging against her chest.

I smiled faintly.

There was my money.

She seized my arm and twisted it.

“You ran away? I found you a good man. Talked myself hoarse arranging it. He’s already paid twenty-eight thousand dollars. Try running again, and I’ll break your legs.”

I watched her mouth move.

Nora’s memories rose.

The beatings.

The contempt.

They hadn’t treated her as human.

She had no bedroom.

She slept in a dog crate.

Doreen put a collar around her neck and made her eat scraps from the floor.

She didn’t understand how to ask for help.

Couldn’t survive alone.

Even if she ran, where could she go?

The good man Doreen praised was Wade Pike.

Nearly fifty.

His first wife had fled years of violence.

Now he wanted Nora.

Doreen had tried her original plan first.

Went to Chloe and demanded money.

But Chloe was cruel, too.

She cursed her and threatened to hire men to break all three of her precious son Dylan’s legs if she came back.

Doreen bullied the weak and feared anyone stronger.

So she turned back to Nora.

Wade needed a wife.

They struck a deal.

Twenty-eight thousand dollars.

For a twenty-year-old woman.

A memory returned.

Doreen crouching in front of the crate, jealousy and malice twisting her face.

“Good life waiting for you now, little idiot. A bed. A man to keep you warm. Just like your real mother. A pretty little slut. Even with no brains, you can turn a man’s head.”

So many ugly words.

My hand tightened until the knuckles cracked.

I let her drag me outside.

Her husband, Frank, waited in a battered van.

As she shoved me in, I felt someone watching.

I turned.

Traffic filled the street.

Before I could find the watcher, the door slammed shut.