He went through the scarlet door as a boy. Ten years later, something else walked out.

Chicago, 2009. Anson Bishop is free—and a decade of his life is simply gone. His friends have grown up without him. The girl he traded himself to save has vanished. The only record of what was done to him sits in a stack of journals he has no memory of writing, pages already read by the one person he hoped would never see them.

He was warned this day would come. He was warned about something else, too.

One of the people who came to rescue him has belonged to his enemies from the moment they met. Anson only has to work out which one - and decide what he'll do with the answer.

Across the city, Detective Sam Porter is missing years of his own. When a man from his forgotten past turns up hanging in a basement, Porter starts pulling a thread that leads straight to Anson.

Betrayal doesn't begin when you find out. It begins the second you believe.

The second of three prequels to New York Times bestselling author J.D. Barker's wildly popular 4MK series.