Only Ashes Remain

Bizarre as this feels to say, I think you have a better moral compass than me. Even if you ignore it a lot.”

what you thought but what you did that mattered.

Her father had said that everyone had bad thoughts and liked bad things, they just didn’t like to admit it. It wasn’t

His eyes narrowed, flint and steel, and Nita finally caught her first glimpse of the real person beneath the friendly facade.

Why would her mother kidnap the child of someone so important just to make a few bucks online?

. “Your mother was sending me back to my father, piece by piece, every time he refused a demand.”

“And money. I hear someone of your standing lives quite well.”

“I’m not. I’m nothing like him.” His voice was bitter.

You did.” His shoulders slumped. “And I’m not my father.”

“The market I was sold in, of course.” Nita spoke in the mild tone of someone innocently commenting on the weather.