Roxie's POV
The video froze on my sister's face, and something inside me went very quiet and very cold.
For most of my life, I had only known the small grief—the grief of being unwanted, the grief of being weak. But this was a different thing. This was watching the people I loved kneel in the dirt, and knowing it was a message, a hook, a hand reaching out to pull me where my father wanted me to go. Darius had not captured Vera and Marcus to hurt them. He had captured them to hurt *me*. To make me move.
"He won't kill them," Katya said quietly, studying the frozen image. "Look at how they're held. Carefully. Vera is six months pregnant—Darius wants that child. And Marcus knows things. They're bait, Roxie. The same as Vera was bait before. The same as your father is bait."
"Everyone I l
