He Used Me As Inventory, I Saved My Sister

Chapter 2

I didn't swallow the pill.

I hid it beneath my tongue.

Pretended to take it.

Then allowed two soldiers to escort me back to my room.

The moment the door locked behind me, I heard the click of the bolt sliding into place.

For the first time in twelve years, my bedroom had been locked from the outside.

I spat the bitter tablet into the toilet and flushed it away.

Then I rushed to the mirror and lifted my nightgown.

There.

Near my waist.

A tiny puncture mark.

Almost invisible.

I'd always assumed it came from routine blood tests.

Now I knew better.

It was preparation.

My stomach lurched.

I doubled over and retched.

Then I thought of Lily.

My little sister had far more puncture marks than I did.

I crossed the room and pressed myself against the connecting door between our bedrooms.

"Lily."

I knocked softly.

"It's me."

The door cracked open.

Lily stood behind it.

Twenty years old.

Yet her eyes belonged to a frightened child.

For the last three years, something about her had been wrong.

She'd go days without speaking.

Wake screaming in the middle of the night.

I'd thought it was anxiety.

"Big sister."

Her voice was tiny.

"You got locked up."

"Were you bad?"

"Lily, listen to me."

I knelt and grabbed her cold hands.

"The treatments."

"The medicine."

"It's all a lie."

"Falcone is hurting us."

"He wants to..."

The words died in my throat.

Lily smiled.

A hollow smile that sent ice down my spine.

"I know."

I froze.

"You... know?"

"He told me three years ago."

She buried her face in her knees.

"He said my liver was worth a lot of money."

"He said if I behaved, the surgery wouldn't hurt."

"He said if I told anyone..."

Her voice dropped to a whisper.

"He'd start with you."

Tears flooded my eyes.

Three years.

My sister had carried this alone for three years.

The nightmares.

The panic.

The emptiness in her eyes.

Suddenly, everything made sense.

And I never noticed.

I stayed in that estate, playing piano for Falcone, drinking his poison, pretending we were a family.

"Lily."

I pulled her into my arms.

"We're leaving."

"I'll get us out."

"We're never taking those drugs again."

She shook her head.

Slowly.

Hopelessly.

"We can't leave."

"One girl tried."

I stiffened.

"What girl?"

Lily stared at the floor.

"I never saw her again."

My blood turned to ice.

"There were others?"

She didn't answer.

Instead, she reached beneath her pillow and handed me something.

A silver locket.

The chain had long since broken.

"This belonged to Mom."

I stared at the cold metal resting in my palm.

I'd never seen it before.

I opened it.

There was no photograph inside.

Only a polished family crest.

A black hunting hound standing over a broken sword.

Not the Falcone eagle.

A different family entirely.

A symbol I'd never seen before.

Yet somehow, it felt carved into my bones.

"Mom gave it to me before she left."

Lily's voice was barely audible.

"She said if someone ever comes carrying the same symbol..."

Her eyes lifted to mine.

"...we should go with them."

At that exact moment, a faint vibration came from an old drawer in the corner of my room.

Both Lily and I froze.

I crossed the room and pulled it open.

Inside was an old flip phone.

I'd assumed it had stopped working years ago.

Now its screen glowed softly.

A new message.

DON'T TRUST FALCONE.

My hands started shaking.

A second message appeared immediately afterward.

YOU ARE NOT A FALCONE.

YOUR NAME IS FERRARO.

YOUR GRANDMOTHER HAS BEEN SEARCHING FOR YOU AND YOUR SISTER FOR TWELVE YEARS.

TOMORROW NIGHT. MIDNIGHT.

WEST GATE. THIRD STREETLAMP.

BRING THE LOCKET YOUR MOTHER LEFT YOU.

The final message appeared.

— From a man who owes your family his life.