Sold to the Bratva King novel · Chapter 8 of 32

Chapter 8: The Hairbrush

I ducked under the garage door and straightened up inside.

"Halle," she said. "This place smells like a hospital."

"It smells like clean. You wouldn't know."

My landlord was standing in the corner by the mop sink in his cardigan, looking miserable.

"She said she was family," he said to me. "She said you'd forgotten your keys."

Lindsey took a long envelope out of her bag and held it out between two fingers.

"From our lawyer. Read it, if you can."

I didn't take it.

She sighed and opened it herself.

"Atwater Marine owes the Zorin people four million dollars. Your precious half is encumbered. Do you know that word? It means you own half of a debt." She smiled. "Congratulations. You're a businesswoman."

She stepped closer.

"You were safe in that house. Fed. Warm. A roof. And you threw it in our faces for a Russian who'll toss you in the harbor when he's got his signature."

Her voice dropped into the old register.

Low and sweet. The voice that used to come right before the cellar door.

"Come home, Halle. Say you're sorry to your brother. Sign the papers. And I won't tell anyone what you really are."

I put my hand in my jacket pocket and took out the sandwich bag.

I held it up between us, at the height of her face.

A strand of brown hair and a broken silver bristle, under my handwriting on the masking tape.

HAIRBRUSH, LEFT EAR, AGE 9.

Lindsey's eyes went to it and stuck.

"You remember that brush," I said. "Sterling silver, with your initials. I polished it for you every Saturday for twelve years."

"I don't know what that is."

"I was nine. I spilled cranberry juice on your white rug. You hit me on the side of the head with it until a bristle broke off in my ear." "I couldn't hear the left side of anything after that. You told the school nurse I had an infection."

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