Sit. Stay. Obey.Chapter 1

On my eighteenth birthday, my stepbrother coaxed me into crossing a line we could never uncross.

He whispered promises against my skin, swore that he would take responsibility, that he would love me for a lifetime. In a haze of pain and adoration, I gave him everything. I foolishly thought I had finally caught happiness in my hands.

Then came the morning after.

My nude photos were plastered across every group chat in our prep school. They called me the "Fifty-Dollar Fix." A slut. A charity case with loose legs.

I went manic. I hunted Hayes down, screaming, needing to know why.

He just watched me unravel. He stood there with the detached curiosity of a scientist observing an insect, his expression curdled with disgust.

"Because of you, Lily is dead," he said, his voice flat. "This is your penance."

Lily was his biological sister.

And I was the reason she was in the ground.