---- Chapter 13 Fitzgerald stood frozen as Caleb's men dragged a screaming, struggling Hailie out of the house. He couldn't believe the venom he'd heard in her voice, the pure, unadulterated hatred for a sister he now realized he'd never truly known in her final years. He had been a puppet, and Hailie had been the master. He looked at Caleb, whose face was a terrifying mask of cold fury. "Caleb, what are you going to do?" Caleb's eyes, red-rimmed and hollow, met his. "She's going to feel everything Ericka felt. Every single thing." The words hung in the air, a promise of a horror yet to come. My parents had collapsed, their belated grief a loud, ugly thing in the quiet room. They had been weak, foolish, and easily led. They had traded their real daughter for a fantasy, and the price had been Ericka's life. 1 Caleb looked at them with pure contempt. "Get out of my sight," he snarled, before turning and striding out of the house, a man on a mission of vengeance. Fitzgerald felt a wave of disgust for his parents, for Hailie, but most of all, for himself. He had been Ericka's brother. He was the one she had saved. And he had repaid her by becoming one of her chief torturers. ---- He looked at Hailie's phone, which she had dropped in the struggle. On a hunch, he picked it up. It wasn't password protected. He went to her photo gallery. It was filled with pictures of her and Caleb, her and his parents. But as he scrolled back, he found screenshots. Text messages between Hailie and a private investigator. She had been digging into Ericka's life from the moment she entered their home. She had found every vulnerability, every weakness, and exploited them. She had orchestrated the "threats from her past," paying a man to make menacing phone calls. The entire foundation of their "lesson" was a lie she had built. The final piece of the puzzle clicked into place. The full scope of her sociopathy was breathtaking. He followed Caleb to the villa. The air in the basement was cold and damp. Hailie was tied to a chair, her face streaked with tears and dirt. When she saw Fitzgerald, a flicker of hope entered her eyes. "Fitz! Help me! Caleb has gone crazy!" Fitzgerald just stared at her, his face grim. "l heard the recording, Hailie. | know what you did." Her face fell. She turned her tear-filled eyes back to Caleb. "Caleb, please! | was wrong! But | love you!" "You love what | can give you," Caleb said, his voice flat. He ---- walked over to the sauna, the one where they had thrown Ericka. He turned it on. The dial went all the way up. "You're going to learn," he said, his voice a low whisper that was more terrifying than any shout. "You're going to learn what it feels like to be burned." Her screams echoed in the small room as his men dragged her toward the sauna. Fitzgerald didn't stop them. He didn't feel pity. He just felt a vast, empty coldness. This wasn't justice. It was just more pain, more darkness. It wouldn't bring Ericka back.