Chapter 4

I tore through the whole house like a madwoman, but the huge place was empty.

I called Mama Grace over and over, texted her again and again, and got nothing back.

My birth parents abandoned me when I was small. Mama Grace was the one who took me in and raised me.

She used to play find-your-way games with me, and she told me again and again that if I was ever hurt or in danger, I had to reach out to the person I trusted most.

Even though Duncan Barnes had left me stranded at the worst moments more than once, I had always held on to those words.

So in my panic, I dialed Duncan Barnes without thinking.

More than a dozen calls in a row before he finally picked up.

Mia Fox's laughter came clearly through the earpiece.

"What is it?"

His voice was thick with irritation.

My voice shook. "Mama Grace came to see me, and I can't find her anywhere in the house."

A short silence, then only Duncan Barnes's cold, dismissive answer.

"Mia's mother just came out of surgery. I have to stay here with them."

"The director's a grown woman. She's not going to get lost."

"I can't even remember your address. How am I supposed to go running around looking for people?"

I bit down hard on my lip and forced back the sob.

"She's the only family I have."

But to him, my grief was just a tantrum.

Duncan Barnes's tone turned even more cutting.

"Mia's mother has a crisis this morning, and by afternoon your director goes missing? Susan Henson, if you want to throw a fit, you don't have to imitate Mia."

The cruelest words yet came down the line and drove straight into me.

"She isn't even your real mother. You're an orphan. You'll never understand the fear Mia feels, losing someone of her own."

I gripped the burning-hot phone, cold all over.

Just because Mia Fox said one word about being scared, he hadn't hesitated for a second to push back a wedding two years in the planning and stand watch through the whole surgery for the result.

But when the only family I had was in trouble, he thought one line about me being an orphan was enough to brush it off.

I said nothing more, and calmly hung up.

There was no one at the house, so I turned and ran straight for the hospital.

Mama Grace must have found out I'd been admitted, so the hospital was where she'd gone looking for me.

But the moment I reached the hospital, I nearly came apart at the sight.

Small, frail Mama Grace had been knocked to the floor by a single slap from Mia Fox.

Several middle-aged women closed in on her, yanking at her, clawing at her face.

"Stop it! Don't you touch my mother!"

I rushed over with my eyes red, shielding Mama Grace beneath me, letting their sharp nails rake across my skin.

Mia Fox scoffed. "Mother? You're an orphan. What makes you think you deserve a mother?"

"What's going on here?"

Duncan Barnes's voice came from a distance, and instinctively I started to call out for help.

But Mia Fox stamped her foot down on my hand.

I cried out, and Mia Fox turned and threw herself into Duncan Barnes's arms.

Her tears came pouring down.

"Duncan, this woman came up and accused me of bullying her daughter, and then she shoved me."

"I was only defending myself. My aunts were just protecting me."

In that instant I understood everything.

Mama Grace had gone to my house and not found me.

She'd come to the hospital to look for me, and instead she'd seen Mia Fox and Duncan Barnes wrapped around each other.

She'd wanted to stand up for me, to get me justice, and Mia Fox had twisted it all around, and she'd been beaten and humiliated in front of everyone.

I lifted my head and stared at Duncan Barnes, my voice raw.

"Mama Grace has been in poor health for years. There's no way she laid a hand on Mia Fox!"

Duncan Barnes avoided my eyes and delivered his flat verdict.

"Mia would never lie."

One weightless sentence, and he'd fixed the crime on Mama Grace, and my heart froze over completely.

The noise brought doctors and security.

I shouted for someone to help her, my eyes red, and watched them rush Mama Grace into the emergency room.

A sheet of writing paper slipped from her body.

The page was covered edge to edge, all of it Mama Grace's gentle reminders and worry for me.

"Susan, how have you been lately? Is Duncan good to you?"

"Susan, if you're ever hurt, come home. This will always be your safe harbor."

"Susan, I heard you were hurt and in the hospital. Don't be afraid, Mama's coming for you right away."

...

Soaked through with blood and sweat, most of the writing had blurred, hard to make out.

But I held that thin sheet of paper and cried without a sound, my whole face wet.

I sat outside the emergency room the whole night through, waiting until the sky broke into light.

Only when the doctor told me Mama Grace was out of danger, and the people from the orphanage came to look after her,

did I go home alone and finish packing.

Sorting through my things, I came across the old records.

Three times in the past I'd changed addresses, and every time I'd told Duncan Barnes right away.

Every message showed as read, and he'd never once cared.

Half an hour before the wedding was set to begin, I was already on a flight bound for a foreign country.

His messages were still sitting in my phone.

【Mia's mom's surgery finishes in about an hour. Be a good girl and wait for me at home, don't throw a fit.】

【I ordered takeout for you ahead of time. Don't go passing out from low blood sugar like Mia.】

It all just struck me as absurd.

The first time Duncan Barnes remembered where I lived, it wasn't out of love.

It was only because he'd watched Mia Fox's blood sugar drop, and it happened to remind him of the one he'd overlooked.

Without a second thought, I blocked every one of Duncan Barnes's contacts.

When Duncan Barnes finished dealing with the hospital and rushed to the wedding banquet hall,

he found the entrance crowded with invited guests, all of them held back at the door, unable to go in.

A staff member came forward, wearing an uneasy look.

"Mr. Barnes, the wedding was canceled by Miss Fox."

The color drained from Duncan Barnes's face.

"Canceled? Today is our wedding. Why would Mia be able to cancel it?"

The staff member looked thoroughly baffled.

"You told us before that everything at the reception was to follow Miss Fox's lead."

"Miss Fox said to cancel the wedding, so Miss Henson went through all the cancellation steps herself."