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Liar.

I turned toward her. She was looking at the police. At least her head was pointed in their direction. Her heartbeat hadn't changed.

Everyone else's had. Even Mei Ling's. Not my mother's.

Her arm slipped around my shoulders. Anyone watching would see exactly what she wanted them to see. Sorsha Lobo protecting her blind daughter while armed police invaded their hosts' gathering.

She drew me to her side. I went because refusing would draw more attention. Her lips came close to my ear.

"Don't look so frightened, darling. Mommy's got you."

Across the room, Nell was arguing with the officers.

Sorsha stroked my arm. Comforting me. Protecting me. Threatening me.

"Money laundering is a terrible accusation," Sorsha said to no on in particular. "Hard to prove. She'll be out within an hour, if that long. Too bad this didn't happen at home and when the whole of society wasn't around to see."

People would be whispering about it. They would be making assumptions. It didn't matter if it were true or not. The story would spread. Just as my whispers to the Ironwoods. Just as my whispers that reached Elias. Just as my whispers that reached Dante Lupetto.

"Mei Ling Blackwood, turn around and place your hands behind your back."

Astrid snarled. I heard the soft brush of fabric as Mei Ling reached for her daughter, followed by the faint clink of porcelain as she handed her teacup to Nell. Metal scraped against leather. Handcuffs.

Something inside my chest cracked. Mother felt me move. Her arm tightened.

"Think very carefully about what you do next, Rosalind."

The cuffs closed around Mei Ling's wrists with a slicing click.

"Such interesting things have been happening among the packs," my mother murmured. "Old secrets finding new audiences. Police suddenly asking questions about businesses that haven't existed in years. People turning against one another over grievances they thought were buried."

For a few moments, I'd thought I'd outsmarted my mother. I'd thought I could still take her down with the chaos I'd sown. But no, she knew. And she was turning it around on me.

"There are advantages to family, darling. We protect one another."

I nearly laughed. This wasn't protection. This was a leash. The same pretty pink leash she'd put me in as soon as I'd come out of diapers. "You want me to keep spying for you."

"I want my daughter to remember where she belongs."

I belonged with Gunnar. The answer came so quickly it knocked the air out of my lungs.

"You have a choice."

There was no choice. There was a trap with two exits, and both ended with me bleeding.

I could keep quiet. Keep feeding Mother information. Keep pretending. Keep Gunnar. Keep his family.

Or I could tell them. Tell Mei Ling that my mother had fed the police the information that put her in handcuffs. Tell Gunnar why. Tell him my mother was trying to control me because I'd betrayed her. And then answer the question that would inevitably follow.

How did you betray her, Rosalind?

"You can keep quiet. Or you can tell them the truth." Sorsha kissed my temple. "But you don't get to do both."

I made out the figure of Mei Ling being led in handcuffs out the door. For the first time since I'd started tearing apart the packs, I understood exactly how it felt to be standing inside the chaos instead of safely outside it.

My mother had learned my game. And she'd just beaten me at it.

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE