His Broken Bride Is A Hidden Genius

Ewell escorted the Herring assistant out the front door. The moment the car drove away, Ewell's face darkened. He grabbed Katrina's arm and dragged her up the stairs to the second-floor study.

The heavy oak doors slammed shut.

Adeline slipped out from the shadows of the hallway. She moved completely silently, her footsteps making zero sound on the hardwood floor. She pressed her ear against the crack in the doorframe.

Inside, Ewell was pacing. "The prenuptial agreement is a joke. They are treating her like property. If we sign this, we have zero leverage."

Katrina poured him a glass of scotch. "Then let Damaris marry him. She's beautiful. She can control him."

"Griffin Herring is a violent psychopath!" Ewell snapped. "I am not throwing my healthy daughter into that meat grinder."

Katrina's voice dropped to a sinister whisper. "Then you better hope Adeline never wakes up."

Adeline stopped breathing.

"She was a genius, Ewell," Katrina hissed. "When she was five, that medical professor wanted to take her. If I hadn't slipped those neuro-suppressants into her milk every night, if I hadn't broken her mind, she would have taken everything from Damaris. If she ever gets her brain back, she will destroy us. Give her to the psycho. Let him lock her away forever."

Outside the door, Adeline's pupils dilated. Her fists clenched so hard her fingernails bit into her palms, drawing blood.

The drugs. The years of mental fog. The abuse. It wasn't a tragedy. It was an assassination of her mind.

Ewell was silent for a long moment. Then, he sighed. "Fine. Tomorrow night at the engagement banquet at The Plaza. We sign the papers. We sell her, and we take the money."

"Deal," Ewell's voice drifted through the crack, heavy with finality. "To our new partnership with the Herrings." The verdict was set. Her own father was selling her to a monster to cover his debts.

She heard Katrina's heels clicking toward the door. Adeline vanished down the hall like a ghost, slipping back into the basement.

Once inside the damp room, Adeline's heart hammered with a new, lethal rage. She grabbed her worn canvas bag to check her gear.

She unzipped the hidden bottom compartment.

Her hand froze.

Her grandfather's silver necklace was completely gone, vanished from its hiding spot.

Adeline dumped the entire contents of the bag onto the floor. She tore through every pocket. Nothing.

The thick pendant of that stolen necklace held a micro-hard drive containing his life's medical research and the only clues to finding her missing brother, Chas. It was her most prized possession.

She closed her eyes. Her brain rapidly rewound the last forty-eight hours.

The alley. The rain. The massive man with the black mask. He had ripped her pockets open. He had taken it.

Adeline pulled out her encrypted phone. She checked the message from her informant.

The license plate from the alley matches a primary vehicle registered to the Herring Group Executive Security Detail. Your attacker is the CEO. Griffin Herring.

Adeline stared at the glowing screen. The violent, masked psychopath who stole her necklace was Griffin Herring. Her fiancé.

A cold, dangerous calm washed over her. Running away was no longer an option. She needed that hard drive.

She pulled up the blueprints for The Plaza Hotel. Tomorrow night, she wasn't just going to a banquet. She was going to break into Griffin Herring's inner sanctum.