A pause. “My brother’s,” Vanessa said, suddenly cautious.

“Exactly. Lucas is the registered agent. He takes the fall. We walk away clean.”

My breath caught. Grant wasn’t only betraying me. He was building a trap door under Vanessa’s own family.

If they want to play God with my life, I thought, feeling the razor-sharp logic of my coder’s mind slide into place, I’ll become the ghost in their machine.

I reached for the keyboard.

For the next three weeks I lived a double life. By day I was Evelyn the Broken. I wore the oversized cashmere sweaters Grant bought to make me look fragile.