She crept down the hall and paused outside the room. Sean sat behind his desk, watching something on his computer screen. His face was frozen in an unreadable expression, and a crystal tumbler of whiskey sat beside his elbow. He looked up from the laptop, regarding her with a calm expression.

"What are you doing?" she asked him.

​​

"Come see for yourself," he said.

She padded into the study, and he pulled her onto his lap. She shifted uncomfortably, wishing she had her own chair. He seemed to be watching some sort of video, but the footage was dark and grainy. She studied the image and realized she was looking at a shabby, small bedroom. At one end, a figure slept in a narrow, single bed.

"What is this?" she asked.

"Just watch," he said.

Suddenly the figure in the bed sat up—it was a woman. She rubbed her eyes and looked toward a pair of long white curtains. Catherine leaned in to get a better look at the woman and gasped.

"Is that Madison?" she asked.

"It is," Sean replied.

Catherine's stomach twisted strangely, but she didn't say another word. Instead, she watched the corner of the screen with the curtains. There seemed to be some sort of dark shape there, but she couldn't tell what it was. Suddenly, the shape moved, and she tensed in shock.

"Sean, what's happening?" she asked.

"You'll see," he said, his voice strained.

The next few minutes were confusing and blurry. The dark shape near the window stood, and she was able to make out the hunched figure of a man. The man spoke to Madison, calling her by name, and Catherine's blood ran cold. Though his voice was hoarse and cracked, she recognized it immediately—the voice of the ghouls in her nightmares, the voice of the horrible hotel room, Adam's voice.

"Is this real?" she asked. "Is Adam with Madison?"

"He is," Sean said.

Her head spun, and her heart hammered in her chest. She wanted to get out of Sean's lap and run screaming from the study, but she couldn't bring herself to look away from the screen. She gritted her teeth and continued to watch. For a few minutes, they talked about texts, and Catherine began to understand.

"Was Madison behind the attack?" she asked. "Was she the one who invited Adam?"

"She was," Sean said. "When my men interrogated him, he said she'd sent him several texts. She told him to seduce you. If you refused, he was ordered to drug you and use any means necessary."

"But why?" she asked. "What was Madison going to gain from that?"

"He was going to record it," Sean said, his voice choked with rage. "They were going to edit the tape and send it to me so I'd divorce you."

"Madison told him to rape me?" she asked.

Cold sweat pricked her body, and she trembled in Sean's arms. She'd known Madison was cruel, but she couldn't believe her cousin would do something so awful.

"She did," Sean said.

On the screen, Madison crumpled to the floor. Loud, harsh sobs burst from her chest, and her shoulders shook and trembled. She denied sending the texts, claiming complete innocence.

"Are you sure she did it, Sean?" Catherine asked. "She seems really upset."

"She's just scared," Sean said, disgustedly. "She'd say anything to get out of the situation."

"I don't know," Catherine said, uncertainly.

"We looked into Adam's claims," Sean said. "The texts did come from her phone."

Catherine fell silent and watched as Adam crept across the room. Though the images were dark, there was something clearly wrong with Adam.

"What happened to your hand?" Madison asked.

"Sean happened to my hand," he said. "I'm lucky it was just the one. He wanted to come for my feet and bloody dick as well."

Catherine turned to look at Sean. His face was perfectly calm.

"You cut off his hand?" she asked, horrified.

"He needed to learn a lesson," Sean said coolly.

Acidic bile shot up Catherine's throat. For a moment, she thought she'd be sick. Was Sean really so cruel and violent?

"He was going to rape you, Catherine," Sean said, his voice strained. "It was all I could do to leave him alive."

"You mean you did this yourself?" she asked.

"I was involved," he said.

"But you were here the whole time," she replied. "When did you go to—?"

She stopped talking as the memory seized her. On the first morning, she'd woken in bed to find Sean with a tray of food. He was fully dressed, but his hair was messy, and his face was flushed as if he'd been exercising. He must have snuck away while she slept to beat Adam.

She studied his face, looking for some sign of guilt or remorse, but there was nothing there. She shivered, and he wrapped his arms tighter around her. Feeling dizzy, she turned back to the screen.

Madison and Adam moved around and spoke in the dark, but she had trouble focusing on them. Her mind raced at impossible speeds. She had always known that Sean was vengeful and cold, but she couldn't believe he'd beat Adam and cut his handoff. Had he enjoyed it? Deep down, was he just as sadistic as Adam?

A low chuckle rumbled behind her. "No, my dear honey," he said. "I'm not a sadist."

She froze in embarrassment and shock—once again, she must have voiced her thoughts out loud.

The screen went bright, and the room came into clear focus—someone had turned on the lights. She stared at Adam in horror. His face was monstrous. It was covered in purple and blue bruises, and one eye was swollen completely shut. His suit was torn and stained, and where his right hand should be, there was nothing but a bloody bandage.

He held a knife to Madison's neck and then sliced the straps off her nightgown. The silky fabric fell away, exposing her large, pale breasts. Adam leered horribly, opening his swollen lips to reveal a dark, cavernous mouth—all of his teeth were gone.

Madison pleaded for her life, and Adam began to speak. He talked about getting revenge, about sating his appetites, about raping Madison. Catherine shivered and closed her eyes.

"Why don't you go back up to the bed," Sean said suddenly. "This might bring up some bad memories for you."

She rounded on him, balling her hands into fists.

"You sick bastard," she hissed. "You said your not a sadist, but now you're forcing Adam to rape Madison."

"I'm not forcing him to do anything," Sean said coolly. "I merely arranged for him to enter her flat and made sure that her parents were fully unconscious. Besides, don't you want to punish Madison for what she did to you?"