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Chapter 4 The elevator at Monteiro Tech had thirty floors and a camera in the upper-left corner that blinked a red light every five seconds. Fábio knew this because he had counted. Three times. In the...

Chapter 1: The Debt and the Sale (Part 1) Emma Craven discovered that her life was over at exactly 2:37 p.m. on a rainy Tuesday, while trying to untie an impossible knot in her shoelace. The kitchen p...

Chapter 4: The Debt and the Sale (Part 4) Emma adjusted her posture, squared her shoulders, and took her first real step down the ground-floor corridor. The black-and-white marble beneath her sneakers...

Chapter 3: Three Weeks to Impress Him Marina Lopes walked into the interns’ room at nine on a Monday morning with the kind of energy that made everyone sit up straighter in their chairs. “Good morning...

Chapter 3: The Debt and the Sale (Part 3) His voice was exactly what she had imagined the voice of someone who read five-year contracts for fun would sound like: controlled, slightly ironic, and dange...

Chapter 2: The Debt and the Sale (Part 2) That night, the family home was filled with a heavy silence. Her mother cried in the bathroom with the faucet running. Her brother pretended to study, but Emm...

The café was called Grão Verso. Fábio discovered it on his second day as an intern, when he got off the subway ten minutes early and decided to walk around the block instead of heading straight to the...

The alarm went off at 6:12 a.m. Not 6:15, as Fábio had intended, because he’d set it incorrectly the night before—too nervous to get anything right, including his own fingers. He sat up in bed and sta...

Chapter 5: The Debt and the Sale (Part 5) The corridor curved gently to the left and suddenly opened into a wider area: the entrance to the kitchen, judging by the distant scent of dried herbs and the...

Chapter 6: The Debt and the Sale (Part 6) Floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. Leather-bound books, some with gold lettering faded by time. Wooden ladders that glided along rails. A large antique globe near ...

Chapter 14: The Kitchen and the Blood (Part 2) She stopped. Nicco watched her with one eyebrow slightly raised. “Miss Craven.” “Yes?” “I don’t eat.” Emma blinked. “What do you mean, you don’t eat? Eve...

Chapter 10: First Day on the Job (Part 4) Emma Craven sat at the large kitchen table, pen in hand, a sheet of cream-colored paper in front of her, and her second cup of coffee already half-empty. Mrs....

Chapter 7: First Day on the Job (Part 1) Emma Craven’s imaginary alarm clock went off at six-thirty in the morning in the form of a persistent bird that had decided to sing right outside her bedroom w...

Chapter 13: The Kitchen and the Blood (Part 1) Emma Craven’s second official day at Ross Manor began with fewer broken vases and more determination. Mrs. Whitmore had woken her with a gentle knock on ...

Chapter 9: First Day on the Job (Part 3) Nicco ran a hand over his face as if trying to suppress a sigh. “That vase,” he finally said, “was from the eighteenth century. Qing Dynasty. Blue and white. O...

Chapter 12: First Day on the Job (Part 6) Emma looked up, surprised. “Thank you. I… like words. They’re easier to control than vases.” Mrs. Whitmore almost, almost smiled. Almost. “Go. Before I regret...

Chapter 11: First Day at Work (Part 5) “I'm finished.” The housekeeper held out her hand. Emma handed over the notepad. The woman read it in silence, her expression shifting from resignation to someth...

Chapter 8: First Day on the Job (Part 2) The silence that followed was deafening. Emma stood frozen, the feather duster still in her hand, her mouth hanging open, her heart pounding so hard she was ce...