“April? She’s alive?” Xandria was shocked to hear the news. Winter had lied to her in more ways than one. “What about her son?”

“We haven’t received confirmation from Stanley yet, but I think it’s safe to say that he won’t fail.”

“I never thought you would fail either.”

“We were only supposed to frame her, not babysit her. But one of our agents just spotted Ms. Adams leaving the hospital where Dr. Winter was taken. We’re following her now.”

“Does she have the Gutenberg?”

“Yes.”

“Where is she headed?”

“We’re not sure. But Gomez is on her.”

“Call me when you have the book.” Xandria hung up. The situation was getting more complicated by the minute. If she was going to pull this off, she needed to have every angle of the mission under her control.

Control. That’s what she was all about, what she needed to survive. She’d learned that lesson the night her sister was beaten to death by her father.

Control. Her father’s power over her kept her from telling the truth to the police. They’d questioned her for hours, but she never wavered from the story he had given them: that a kid from down the street had broken in, stolen some money, and then raped and killed her sister. The kid was from a poor family. He had a criminal record, something her father knew would bolster his case. The police took the kid in the next day. He didn’t have an alibi, at least not one that was willing to talk to a cop, so he was put behind bars. Months later, Xandria read that he was beaten to death in a gang riot. She left the paper out for her father, folded with the story on the front. He picked it up and threw it in the fireplace.

Control. Years later, on the anniversary of her sister’s death, Xandria found it for herself. Her father let her out of the house only to attend public school. Xandria did well there, making friends and impressing teachers. In her senior year, she secretly began applying to universities with the aid of the school’s guidance counselor, a bohemian, recent divorcé named Russ.

Russ promised that once the right schools came knocking, her father would see that the wisest decision was to let her move away to pursue a career. Xandria was amazed at Russ’s tenacity. He would often show her a stack of applications he’d spent all night preparing on her behalf. He spent lengthy amounts of time with her in counseling, discussing everything that troubled her. No story seemed too long for him. No problem seemed too discouraging. Russ was always positive. He was always kind. Which was probably why Xandria didn’t see it coming when, one late afternoon in February, he locked the door after she came into his office.