Chapter 3

But the things Harry had just said were too ugly to take back.

So Louisa wouldn't let it drop, and Harry was hauled off by the factory security office just the same.

Before they took him away, though, he shot me one last threatening look, a signal to keep out of it, or he'd kill me.

I hadn't planned on getting involved anyway. That whole act I'd just put on was only to make Harry think I hadn't been reborn, so nothing else would go sideways.

Now that he'd walked himself onto a dead-end road, I certainly wasn't going to mix in. I just covered my face, playing the part of a woman crushed to the bone, and went home.

I washed my face at home and had barely told my parents I was fine.

Then Harry's mother, Margery Hansen, came wailing and dropped to her knees outside our door.

"Paula, Harry's a good boy. He's your fiancé, your whole future, your sky. How could you stand there and watch the factory security office drag him off?"

"Those men in security are nothing but big dumb brutes. What do they know about looking after an educated young man?"

"Fine, so you tested into college yourself, and now you look down on how poor my family is, look down on my Harry. You can break off the engagement. But you can't ruin Harry like this."

"Is your heart really that vicious?"

Margery's words were loaded with insinuation, and plenty of people in the courtyard genuinely had no idea what had happened.

So they actually believed it was my fault, that I'd thrown him over the second I had money, used and abandoned him, and schemed to destroy Harry.

My parents spun in helpless circles. Honest, simple people, they had no idea how to explain any of it.

All they could do was keep begging Margery to get up.

None of this surprised me. Last time, after Harry pushed me onto the train tracks, she'd twisted the truth exactly like this, claiming I'd fallen on my own and gotten Harry killed in the process.

They'd forced my parents to kowtow and apologize to Harry, let the whole crowd curse them as murderers. My parents had been honest their whole lives, and they never came back from it. They chose to drink poison and follow me...

5:

At that thought, I pinched my own thigh, hard.

Forcing myself calm.

Then I rushed out the door, threw myself into Margery's arms, and cried until I could barely catch my breath.

"Aunt Margery, Harry's already in this state, and you're still here blaming me?"

"Harry's my fiancé, but he was hanging all over Josephine right in front of me, and he took the blame for her. And now you stand here calling me the one who used and abandoned him!"

Margery knew perfectly well who her son had feelings for. Being called out like that flustered her, but she still puffed up and snapped.

"He was right to hit you."

"Harry's young and hot-headed. As his fiancée, you should be helping him!"

I rolled my eyes on the inside.

Harry was two years older than me. Since when was he the young one?

But I only cried harder.

"You don't know. I just wanted to say one word for Harry, and in front of all those people he cursed me for meddling and slapped me across the face, hard."

"See for yourself, the mark's still on my cheek. He wanted to play the hero and take the blame. What was I supposed to do?"

Margery looked at the cheek I'd rubbed red myself.

And it only stoked her fury.

"So you already know my son was taking the blame for someone else. Then as his fiancée, why didn't you take the blame for him?"

That stopped me for a second.

But then a few people who knew the truth came back and couldn't stand it, one after another stepping in to shield me and turning on Margery. Margery didn't disappoint, cursing them out one by one, and only after she'd offended every last one of them did I sigh and pull her into the house.

"Aunt Margery, no one knows my heart for Harry better than you do!"

"Even after Harry treated me like that, I still care about him. That's why I came back, to work out a plan with you."

"So here's what I was thinking. You go find the woman whose watch it was, I'll go find proof that Harry wasn't there the day the watch went missing, and then Harry can walk free."