He read it as a beaten woman with nothing left, absorbing her last humiliations before she disappeared.

He was so pleased by it, so certain of it, that he decided to enjoy it out loud — and that decision was the single most expensive thing Mason ever did.

Chapter 6 — Mason’s Confession

“You should be grateful, honestly,” Mason said, savoring it.

“We’re letting you walk away debt-free.

Do you have any idea how generous that is?”

“Debt?” I said, and I let my voice shake a little, let my eyes go wide.

I gave him the frightened, ignorant woman he wanted to see, because a man who thinks he is talking to someone harmless will tell you absolutely anything.