Chapter 4

Behind her, the private room door remained open. Alex's calm voice drifted out. "Adam, send me Olivia's address." Olivia barely knew how she made it out of the restaurant.

Only when the night wind hit her face did she realize she was crying. She wiped her face, fumbled with the screen three times before unlocking it, and reread the message until the words blurred together.

For three years, she had never stopped investigating Nathan's case. Yet every piece of evidence pointed to the same airtight conclusion: he got drunk, picked a fight, and stabbed someone. She had gone through the files countless times and found no opening.

And now, out of nowhere, someone was telling her it had all been a setup by a Walker.

Olivia tightened her grip on the phone, Alex's face flashing through her mind. Five years ago, they had loved each other fiercely. On the day they broke up, he'd asked with red eyes, "Do you even have a heart?"

She had given him no explanation, because she couldn't say a single word.

That afternoon, Alex's mother had found her and slammed a file down in front of her. "Ms. Hill. Your brother's case goes to trial next month. I've looked into it. The evidence is heavily stacked against him. Sentencing starts at seven years, minimum.

"If you want me to get him a lighter sentence, you'll leave my son.

"Otherwise, I have more than enough ways to make his life behind bars a living hell."

Mrs. Walker was the Walker family's formidable matriarch, one of the most ruthless women in Central City's elite circle.

Olivia had smiled and asked whether Madam Walker was threatening her.

Mrs. Walker smiled back, elegant and composed, and said no, she was offering a choice between Nathan's future and a relationship that had no place in their world.

Olivia chose her brother. She made sure Alex saw her embracing another man outside a hotel, ignored every call and message, and vanished from his life. He searched for her for three full months before finally cornering her outside her law firm, his eyes bloodshot.

He demanded one reason. Olivia looked at him with nails dug into her palm and, wearing a careless smile, told him she was bored, bored of him, bored of everything.

That day, Alex looked like a beast whose pride had been beaten out of it.

He stood there for a long time before turning away, his back unbearably lonely. After that, she cried for five years.

And Nathan still ended up with a seven-year sentence. Mrs. Walker had not kept her promise, or perhaps she had kept the other one instead, making Nathan's life in prison a living hell.

Olivia's phone buzzed again. A third text came through: [Ms. Hill, 9:00 a.m. tomorrow. Don't be late. By the way, your brother had three ribs broken in prison last week. If you keep dragging this out, next time it may not be his ribs.]

Olivia's pupils shrank. She turned toward the restaurant. The private room on the second floor was still lit. Alex was still in there.

Clenching her phone, she turned and walked back.

Before she reached the door, a black Mercedes-Maybach stopped in front of her. The window rolled down, revealing Alex in the back seat. "Get in," he said, an order, not a question.

Olivia didn't move and told him there was nothing left for them to say.

Alex turned to look at her and, in a voice flat as a court ruling, recited Nathan's case. Her brother had gone to prison for assaulting the finance director of a Walker family subsidiary.

Then he added one more fact, that finance director had been one of his mother's people.

Olivia's heart dropped. He knew. He knew all of it. Alex stepped out, stopped in front of her, and tilted up her chin.

He was a full head taller, looking down at her as he asked whether she really thought he knew nothing, why she left, why she cried, why Nathan went to prison. Tears burst from her eyes.