That she’d lose Percy forever, that her parents would never survive the disgrace.

She was twenty-five, her baby was six months old, and she believed her life was over.

And then Radley had offered her a solution — a cousin at a county facility who could arrange for an unidentified body from a fatal crash to be registered under her name; a staged accident; a fire; and Sidonie hidden away somewhere quiet for six months until the investigation cooled, after which he would gather Percy and his savings and they would all disappear together under new names.

“He swore it would be a few months,” she said.

“Months became years.”

Chapter 17 — The Cage