Chapter 2

The 8 AM deadline passed in a blur of failed calls and mounting panic.

I was broke.

Utterly, completely broke.

The liaison officer, Davies, had called twice, his voice colder each time.

The final call ended with a stark, "We'll have to proceed with the transfer, Mr. Miller. I'm sorry it came to this."

Sera was going to prison.

Because of me.

I sat on the edge of Leo's small bed, my head in my hands.

He was at school.

He didn't know how bad it was.

He didn't know his mother was about to be thrown to the wolves.

Later that day, the school called.

Leo hadn't arrived.

A cold dread, different from the financial fear, gripped me.

I rushed to the school, then to the police.

Hours turned into a nightmare.

Then, a call from a hospital.

My son.

Leo.

He was in a private clinic, one I'd never heard of.

When I got there, a grim-faced doctor met me.

"Mr. Miller... I'm so sorry."

Leo was gone.

He' d lost too much blood.

"Blood? What are you talking about?" I choked out.

The doctor looked uncomfortable.

"He came in this morning. He... he said he was selling his blood. For you. For his mom."

My world tilted.

Numbly, I pieced it together.

Leo, my perceptive, loving Leo, must have overheard me.

Overheard my desperate, last-ditch phone calls about needing quick cash.

Heard me mention, in a moment of utter despair, some shady underground broker I' d read about, a dangerous option I' d never seriously consider.

But he had.

My seven-year-old son.

He'd found this broker.

He had Rh-null blood. Golden blood. Incredibly rare. Incredibly valuable.

He' d sold it.

To save his mother.

And it had killed him.

They handed me an envelope.

It was full of cash.

Blood money.

Leo' s blood money.

I don't remember driving.

I found myself outside a sleek, downtown office building.

Vance Technologies.

Sera's family company.

The address Davies, the "liaison officer," had given me for "emergency in-person payments."

I' d never connected it before, too consumed by the crisis.

I clutched the envelope.

This was the money Leo died for.

I had to give it to them.

Maybe, just maybe, it wasn't too late for Sera.

A twisted, broken part of me still clung to that.

I was in a waiting area, sterile and cold.

A door was slightly ajar down the hall.

Voices drifted out.

One was male, arrogant.

"…Ethan's finally maxed out. Not a penny more to squeeze from that loser."

My name.

Then another voice.

A woman's voice.

Chillingly familiar.

Sera.

"Good," she said, her tone like ice. "He and the boy have served their purpose. Make sure they're given a quiet way out. No loose ends. Only my child with Marcus will inherit the Vance fortune."

Marcus.

Her new husband.

My son… served his purpose?

A quiet way out?

The "imprisonment," the "facility," the "failed startup"…

It was all a lie.

A monstrous, elaborate lie.

And Leo… oh God, Leo…