Sin goes to Elli’s house in his masked-man costume; he is frustrated that Elli chose to call the masked man instead of him. He debates telling her that he is the masked man, but Elli runs up to him, cries, and hugs him, thanking him for saving her. Sin realizes he may need to continue pretending to be the masked man for Elli’s sake, noting that she does not trust him as Sin.

Ellington

Elli remembers how her stepfather caught her listening to her mother’s sessions, which he used to begin molesting her. Elli feels sick remembering how she fell for her stepfather’s ruse. When the masked man arrives, Elli cries and hugs him. Then she starts insulting him, asking why he does not have sex with her. When Elli calls him impotent, the masked man chokes her. She fights him, but he pins her to the ground. Elli is aroused, and they have sex.

Sin laments that he gave into his anger, but he has rough anal sex with Elli anyway. Afterward, he sees that he injured Elli, and that she is bleeding. He puts her in the bathtub, breaks the phone she uses to contact the masked man, and leaves, hoping he is forcing her to rely more on the real Sin.

Sin presents his evidence against David to Lincoln, but Lincoln chastises Sin for trying to date Elli. Lincoln explains that Lords must take a chosen Lady, even if they also want to have sex with other women. Lincoln threatens to “take” Elli if Sin refuses, and Sin knows he cannot openly defy Lincoln. A woman enters, whom Lincoln calls “darling,” and Sin realizes she is Elli’s mother, Mrs. Asher. After Mrs. Asher’s first husband, Elli’s father, died, she got remarried, but Sin killed her second husband two years prior. Mrs. Asher tells Sin that she is marrying Lincoln. This surprises Sin, since Lincoln is less powerful than either of the Lords Mrs. Asher previously married. Sin reveals that he is dating Elli, and Mrs. Asher promptly notes that Elli is not a chosen Lady. Lincoln silences Mrs. Asher, Sin leaves, and another Lord, Matt, walks past him covered in blood.

Ellington

Elli is sore and disappointed in the masked man. She calls Kira, who implies that she slept with her boyfriend last night, and they make plans to hang out later. Sin drives by, stops, and tells Elli to get in his car. Elli resists, but Sin forces her into the car and speeds to Elli’s house. Inside, Sin tells Elli to pack a bag, then he brings her to the house of Lords. Sin wants Elli to live with him for a while, and Elli wonders if Sin reciprocates her romantic feelings for him.

Sin wonders how Lincoln, a low-level Lord, convinced the society to allow him to marry Mrs. Asher. He is worried that Elli is too fragile to withstand anything Lincoln might try to do if they live in the same house. Amelia Lane Cleary, the chosen Lady picked for Sin, enters his room barely dressed and tries to seduce him. Sin tells her to leave, but Elli comes out of the bathroom and sees Sin grabbing Amelia’s arm. Elli is upset, and Amelia criticizes Sin for associating with a woman who is not a chosen. Sin pulls Amelia to the hallway, promises to call her, and returns to his room to find Elli missing. He gets outside in time to see Elli getting into Kira’s car.

Ellington

Elli remembers listening to one of her mother’s sessions where a husband and wife engaged in age play. The wife would pretend to be an infant, wearing a diaper and calling her husband “Daddy.” James, Elli’s stepfather, used Elli’s notes on the session to justify making her call him “Daddy,” too, and made her wear a pacifier with a leather belt attaching it to her head. In retrospect, Elli knows James was molesting her, and she hates herself for enjoying it.

Kira brings Elli to her house. They watch a movie and get ready for a party at the marina. At the party, Elli flirts with Mack and realizes she feels alone with David, the masked man, and Sin. Sin interrupts, Mack leaves, and Elli tries to push Sin away. Sin threatens to have sex with Elli in front of everyone, but Jayce interrupts, allowing Elli to escape.

Sin cannot focus on Jayce and tells him to call tomorrow. Sin finds Elli talking to Mack again, so he interrupts. Elli tells Sin that she had sex with another man last night and implies that she faked her orgasm with Sin before walking away. Sin goes to his car, gets some items, and waits for Elli. He is amused that Elli does not realize he is the masked man. When Elli leaves the party, Sin puts a bag over her head, ties her arms, and carries her to one of his father’s boats.

Ellington

The man drops Elli on a bed, and she feels that she is on a boat. He removes the bag, revealing the masked man. Elli wonders if he saw her with Sin and got jealous, but she tells him to let her go, deciding she will not rely on him anymore. He rips of her dress before taking of the mask, revealing Sin. Elli is shocked, Sin calls her “little demon,” and he brings her to the front of the boat.

Sin ties a chain around Elli’s neck and throws her in the water, noting that he is both the man who tortures her and saves her from torture. She yells and cries, but Sin waits for her to get tired. Elli disappears under the surface, Sin panics and jumps in after her, but he cannot find her. Locating the chain, Sin pulls Elli to the surface, where she headbutts him in the face.

Ellington

Sin pulls Elli onto the boat and says he loves her. Sin performs oral sex on Elli, and she notes that she would risk her life for this kind of sexual experience.

Sin has sex with Elli, using the chain to choke her. He feels assured that Elli understands that she belongs to him.

Ellington

Elli wakes up in Sin’s bed. She does not know how she got there. She is reeling from the revelation that Sin is the masked man, which means he killed James. Elli does not fully understand the Lords society and wonders why Sin killed James and took his finger and phone. Elli showers and laments that she drank heavily to drown out memories of her trauma. She realizes she used Mack to make Sin jealous, wondering how much she can torment Sin in the future. On campus, Elli sees Sin and Jayce, and Sin follows her. She goes to David’s class, interrupting Mack’s story, and goes to the podium with her diary.

Sin sits in Elli’s seat and watches David while Elli tells her story. Elli describes how David got her drunk, drugged her, and recorded himself having sex with her. She questions why David, and men in general, refer to women like Elli as “whores,” denying their own involvement in sex. Sin is shocked that David drugged Elli, who walks out of the room.

Ellington

Elli feels that telling the story brought closure to her relationship with David Sin chases after her, shocked that David sexually assaulted Elli. Elli chastises Sin, saying Sin should not have gotten her removed from David’s class. Sin lets Elli leave, and she goes home. She cries, wondering why she gets involved with men like James, David, and Sin. Her mother is not home, and she rests all evening. Sin breaks into her room and covers her mouth and nose until she loses consciousness.

Elli wakes up with her arms bound in Sin’s car. They arrive at the Freak Show alongside Jayce and Corbin. The men put a costume on Elli, including a gag, and they take a ride into the fairgrounds. When the ride stops, Sin brings Elli to a room in which David is tied to the wall, bleeding from multiple wounds. Sin explains that David has been having sex with multiple students, including minors. Jayce and Corbin hold Elli to a chair, and Sin performs a ritual in which he asserts that Elli belongs to him, he brands her thigh with his Lords ring, and he burns all Elli’s diaries, promising to buy her new journals to record their sexual activities. Elli enjoys the pain of the brand but laments the loss of her memories.

Sin

Sin brings Elli to his car, arranging with Jayce and Corbin to retrieve David’s body the following day. Sin drives Elli to her house, brings her to her room, and cleans the brand. Elli resists, but Sin takes off her remaining clothes. They have sex.

Sin spends the weekend having sex with Elli. He gets called to a meeting with the Lords for an assignment. Corbin and Jayce inform Sin that there was a shooting at Judge Mallory’s home, but no one has any details. Lincoln enters, surprising Sin, who thought Lincoln and Mrs. Asher would be away for another day. Lincoln needs two Lords, and Matt volunteers himself and Ryat. Sin senses a tension between Ryat and Matt but does not know what it is. Lincoln dismisses everyone, and Sin checks a camera over Elli, who is tied to her bed naked.

Ellington

Elli plans to leave after dinner, not wanting to be home with her mother. One of her mother’s attendants brings her a glass, but she drops it on the ground and drinks champagne from a bottle. Picking up a shard, Elli accidentally cuts herself. Mrs. Asher enters with Lincoln, making Elli recall the night Sin killed James. Lincoln comforted Mrs. Asher, and the Lords took over the investigation of James’s death. Elli met Lincoln once before that night, and she knows he is worse than James. Mrs. Asher leaves the room, and Lincoln tells Elli that he is marrying her mother. He implies that he is going to sexually abuse Elli. Elli flees, running into Sin outside the front door.

Elli tells Sin she needs to leave, so he puts her in his car and starts driving. He notices the glass in her hand making her bleed and pulls over, using a shirt as a tourniquet. Sin asks what Lincoln did to her, guessing that Lincoln sexually assaulted her with James. Elli says she did not say “no,” and Sin asks how old she was.

Ellington

Elli remembers taking ecstasy with Kira when she was 18-years-old. As they left to go to Blackout, a club owned by Tyson Crawford, a notorious Lord, James called Elli into his office. James told Kira to leave, and Elli found James and two other men in the office. James hit Elli, chastising her for taking drugs before sexually assaulting her in front of the two men. One man, Lincoln, joined in the sexual assault, while the other, a younger man, commented that James had already “trained” Elli for him.

Elli gets out of Sin’s car and vomits. When Sin tries to help, she criticizes him for making her think he was someone else with the mask and questions why Sin is suddenly interested in her. She flees into the woods, and Sin chases her, pinning her to the ground.

Sin realizes that Elli did not like his attempt at pitying her. He decides to torment her, instead. He forces himself on her and berates her while they have sex. He asks if James let Lincoln assault her, if she enjoyed it, and if she wants Sin to arrange to have all the Lords have sex with her. Internally, Sin is irritated that Elli wants multiple partners in her fantasies, which he says he would not allow. As Sin continues to have sex with Elli, he tells her she is only allowed to have sex with him. Afterward, he carries her back to the car.

Sin brings Elli to his house, leaves her in the bathroom, and goes to talk to Kira. Kira just got out of the shower and seems nervous, then Corbin comes out of her bathroom. Sin is furious, but Kira says she is Corbin’s chosen Lady. Sin charges into his father’s office, demanding to know why Kira was made a chosen. Sin’s father dismisses Kira, and Corbin follows her. Sin’s father explains that making Kira Corbin’s chosen was the only way to protect her. Sin demands that he make Elli a chosen for Sin. Sin’s father notes that Elli’s father, Nicholas, made it one of his final wishes that Elli remain outside the Lords society. He shows Sin pictures from the years of James’s abuse and reveals that he put in the request to terminate James. Sin admits to finding pictures on James’s phone of the abuse going back to Elli’s early teenage years, but he deleted the photos.

Sin’s father is upset that Sin deviated from the assignment. He says Elli is too traumatized to be helped, and insists that Sin be with Amelia. Sin’s father notes that Nicholas loved Elli’s mother, Laura, and they always wanted children. When Laura gave birth to Elli, there were complications that required a hysterectomy. Sin’s father believes Lincoln intends to get Elli pregnant to create an Asher heir, and he warns Sin that no one can protect Elli from Lincoln. Sin leaves, finds Elli in his bathroom, and helps her clean off. Elli is trembling and admits that she loves Sin, and Sin promises to be whatever Elli needs.

Ellington

Elli gets ready for Laura and Lincoln’s wedding by taking pills with champagne. She has been living at Sin’s house for five days, and it feels like home. She recalls how Sin saved her from a party when she took too many drugs, and she asks him to have sex with her before the wedding.