Chapter One

      Well, really, things just couldn’t get much worse. Addison sat in her older brother’s office, numbness wrapping itself around her like a heavy blanket.

      She was officially banned from her sorority, not that she cared much, since school was awful just at the moment, as was her sorority. But still, leaving of her own accord would’ve hurt a lot less.

      They hadn’t exactly said the word banned, but the sorority’s president had made it abundantly clear that Addison’s presence was a “distraction.” And that links to “prostitution” and “snipers” were not exactly fitting with the relaxing environment of sisterhood and education they were so striving for.

      Well, obviously. But nobody seemed worried about whether or not Addison felt she had sisterhood, or a relaxing environment for education.

      She had nothing.

      Her father had been killed in front of her only days after she discovered he was he was running a prostitution ring, behind the facade of a law office that championed for the downtrodden.

      She’d lost not only her father, but the memory of him and any bit of safety and security she’d ever felt in her name, or in her family home.

      Her sorority might be disturbed by associations with snipers’ bullets piercing the windows of the wealthy and elite at midnight, and with associations to sex rings and scandal, but she could guarantee it was a lot worse for her.

      Added to that, her boyfriend, Eddie, was suddenly and conveniently on vacation in Bermuda, and while he sent his regrets, he could not interrupt his vacation. Which she had a sinking feeling meant that her rather distant boyfriend was putting more distance between them now, thanks to the scandal.

      Her schooling was on temporary hiatus, and she was finishing what she could online because campus was impossible for her to navigate. What with male students asking if she sold her favors, wink, wink, nudge, nudge, since her father had obviously dealt in sex, and with most female students now avoiding her so they didn’t get her contaminants on them.

      Truly, people were terrible.

      Her father had been shot and killed in front of her, and she’d had to go to his funeral. A funeral she, her brother and her mother had had to put on as though they still cared because even given what he’d done, none of them could quite bring themselves to leave Jason’s body in an unmarked grave.

      Though the marker on his grave was bland enough.

      Jason Treffen, 1955–2014.

      No beloved father, beloved husband, beloved boss. He wasn’t beloved by a single person by the time that bullet passed through him. And it was his own fault. As more and more details emerged, it became harder to remember him as the man she’d always believed he was. Instead her old, beautiful memories were twisting. Making it hard to see anything other than the monster.

      And just as well.

      Even in death, he hurt others. He was gone, and they were all left to deal with the fallout. They were all coping in the best way they could.

      For her brother, Austin, it meant hoping his legacy as a true advocate for women never fell under the shadow of what their father was. It meant working harder, with even greater integrity than he had to begin with.

      For her future sister-in-law, Katy, it meant living with the crushing death of her sister, trying to move on and make Sarah’s life matter, through the foundation she was establishing.

      For Addison’s mother it seemed to mean blocking out the world and shoe shopping. Addison had no idea what it meant for her.

      Which was why she was sitting in her brother’s office when she should have been in class.

      “Are you okay?” Austin asked, studying her from his position behind his desk.

      She smiled, knowing that Austin would see through her, no matter how convincing a smile might appear. “Wonderful, aren’t you?”

      “I think I’m doing better than you are. But then, I have someone I’m sharing all this with.”

      “Yes, I know. You’re in love, Austin. It’s impossible to miss.”

      His lips curved up into a smile. “Yeah, I am.”

      “I’m pleased for you.”

      He lifted his hand and threw a bag of Skittles down onto the desk in front of her. “Sugar,” he said. “Your favorite variety. Eat.”

      Austin had always brought her candy. He was so much older it had been hard for them to relate to each other in some ways, but he’d always brought her treats