I had been handed, by way of the worst year of my life, the one thing my grandfather’s fortune had never been able to buy: a life with no lie at the bottom of it.

I understood, in those first clean months, why they had chosen me as the one to sacrifice, and it was not the reason I’d assumed.

I had thought, at first, that they targeted me because I was weak — the sheltered heiress, the easy mark, the lock to be picked.

But that was never it.

They targeted me because I was the only one who could not be brought in.

Sennett was greedy; he could be bought.