Every mistake of my life pressed down on my shoulders at once. “I was blind. I was weak. I let people around me make decisions I never questioned. I failed you and I failed your mother. But I am here now. I will not leave again.”
Tentatively, Brielle stepped forward. Then she broke. She crashed into me and sobbed as I held her like she was the only tether left to my sanity. The boy lingered by the door, watching with guarded caution.
“Are you the one who protected her,” I asked.
He nodded. “Name’s Jace Romero. She would not have made it without me. We escaped the compound four months ago.”
Compound. The word curdled inside me. That meant my brother, Grayson Vale, had turned my business empire into something monstrous. Drug laundering. Kidnapping. Human trafficking. All under the veil of philanthropy and urban development. I had seen whispers of trouble years ago and chose not to look deeper. The guilt was a poison I deserved to swallow.