Aldo Vanessa went silent on the other end of the line. Likely, she was trying to determine how much I knew—whether my words were a wild guess based on mere speculation … or I’d actually learned her secret. The truth was, I hadn’t. Ethan had. Ethan had dug up Vanessa’s entire past and presented it to me on a silver f*****g platter. Motives? She had plenty. And what she wanted … “You want me, don’t you, Vanessa?” I asked, and Layla’s stare burned through my skin. “You want me to turn myself in.” Vanessa’s sharp inhale from the other end of the line told me that I’d guessed correctly. That all the pieces Ethan had presented fit beautifully together into one picture that made her so easy to predict. To play. Vengeance was a dangerous game. Made you deadly. Made you reckless. Made you w

