Chapter 1

The day the special police raided the scam operation, I was sitting on a small stool memorizing fraud scripts.

Captain Luke Reynolds snatched the phone from my hand, his voice sharp with anger.

"You could come and go freely. You even had your phone. Why didn't you call the police?"

I clutched my fraud notebook tightly to my chest and shook my head blankly.

"Call the police? So you could send me back home? But Captain, even breathing is a luxury there."

Luke stood frozen in place.

Since I was twelve, my grandmother had installed tiny cameras in my room — by my bed, at my desk, even in the bathroom — so she could monitor me around the clock.

Every time I showered, I watched that little red light blinking, and I could barely breathe.

I cried and begged my mother for help, but she only said:

"Evelyn, I work so hard to make ends meet. Your grandmother only does this because she cares about you so much."

When I was sixteen, I saw a guy with bleached hair on the street and walked straight into that scam den.

I couldn't stand another second in that suffocating house.