The pain in her ankle pulsed before anything else did, it was a persistent throb. If only she hadn't run earlier in those heels, they would not have worsened the pain that was endurable. It was the same ankle she had twisted when she fell down the stairs.

But as if the day wasn't worse enough, there she was, Prisca, hands tangled with a man old enough to be her father.

“ Tyler's pet?”

The word struck harder than the pain. For a second, everything inside her stilled, heat crawled slowly up her neck, not embarrassment, something worse. Recognition.

That was what her classmates and everyone else used to call...