Chapter 3

I haven't even locked the door behind me when the landlord shows up with three heavies at my back.

"Elena. Someone just offered me ten times your rent. You're out. Now."

I don't get a chance to argue.

They throw me and everything I own onto the street.

My clothes land in a puddle.

The rain is already coming down hard. My prosthetic aches in the wet cold.

Then a Maybach rolls up and stops right in front of me. It splashes mud across my legs.

Sienna leans out the window, cigarette between her fingers, smoke curling.

"Look at you. The big-shot attorney, living like a stray dog." She exhales slowly.

"God, Elena. You're embarrassing."

Dominic gets out.

He opens an umbrella and holds it over my head.

"Stop being stubborn. Just apologize to Marco, keep your head down. I'll sort the job, I'll sort the housing. Why are you doing this to yourself?"

I push myself up off the ground.

"Get that umbrella out of my face. And take your girlfriend somewhere else."

Dominic's jaw tightens.

"Sienna was there for me when you were gone. She held things together. I'm standing here trying to help you and you're acting like I'm the enemy."

He pauses.

"Your parents have been asking about you. Don't shut them out too."

And right on cue，two figures come running through the rain. No umbrella. Moving fast.

My parents.

I haven't gone to see them since I got out.

I was afraid the rumors had reached them. Afraid they'd been hurt by all of it.

My mother reaches me first.

She slaps me across the face before she says a word. My father gets the other cheek.

"You have the nerve to show your face?" My mother's voice is pure venom. "You're not our daughter. You never were."

"Sienna is our family now. She's the one who deserves that name." My father's eyes are cold. "A whore like you should've died in that cell."

Five years I spent worrying about them. Five years scared they'd been poisoned by the lies.

I never expected them to take Sienna in as their own.

Sienna steps out of the Maybach and takes both of them by the arm, guiding them back toward the car.

"Mom, Dad. She's not ready to admit what she did. Don't waste your energy."

She glances back at me.

"We've got the firm. You can both retire in peace. Leave her to figure it out."

My parents exchange a look, then turn on me with pure disappointment.

"If Sienna hadn't been running the firm all these years, everything we built would be gone."

My mother's voice is sharp.

"You want to keep playing the victim? Fine. Don't expect us to catch you when you fall."

The Maybach pulls away.

I stand in the rain until the taillights disappear.

I limp two blocks to a diner I passed on the way out of my building. I need work. Any work.

The manager takes one look at my prosthetic and waves me off before I can speak.

"Get out of here. We don't hire cripples. who's gonna cover it when you get hurt?"

I grab his arm and hold tight.

"I work clean and I work fast. Half wages. Just feed me."

The manager huffs, impatient, and moves to shove me off.

Then a woman in a cleaning uniform spins around from behind the counter.

"Oh my God." She stares at me. "Miss Elena?"

I freeze, studying the woman in front of me.

She grabs my arm and pulls me into the corner, eyes darting left and right.

Then she reaches into her apron pocket and pulls out a small voice recorder.

"Miss Elena, I am so sorry."

Her voice drops to almost nothing.

"Five years ago, I was a cleaner at the hotel. Sienna paid me a hundred thousand dollars to kill the camera feed that night. But I recorded her. Her and Marco planning the whole thing. Every word. I kept it because I couldn't live with myself."

She presses it into my hand.

"Please don't tell anyone it came from me. I just……I needed you to have it."

Five years. A destroyed leg. A prison sentence for something I never did.

And the proof was sitting in a cleaning woman's apron pocket the whole time.