Chapter 2

They kept me in that room for seven days.

Once a night, the housekeeper slid a bowl through the door. Leftovers. Cold by the time they reached me.

Outside, the house rang with laughter. The Holt family, complete and content.

Nora made a point of standing just outside my door with Nathan, her voice honeyed and just loud enough to reach me through the gap.

"Nathan, this necklace is too expensive. You should give it to Rhea."

"I know you love me. But she's their real daughter."

"Maybe we should just… stop. I can stand back and watch you be happy from a distance—"

She let her voice crack on the last word.

"Even if it breaks me. It would still be worth it."

Nathan pulled her close and kicked my door hard enough to rattle the frame.

"Don't talk nonsense," Nathan said, his voice dripping with disdain.

"That girl we dragged in from nowhere isn't fit to carry your shoes."

"Honestly, every time I look at her, it turns my stomach. What right does she have to wear anything that costs real money?"

"Don't worry. Even if I go through with the marriage, I won't touch her. Not once. You're the only one, Nora. That will never change."

I sat with my back against the door and listened to the two of them perform their devotion for me.

I dragged my cracked lips into a smile.

"Sleeping in a necklace that heavy," I said quietly. "Hope she doesn't wake up with a stiff neck."

The next morning, Nora's scream split the hallway.

"Ow — it hurts — Blake, I can't move my neck!"

Then Blake's voice, tight with panic, stumbling over reassurances. The housekeeper's quick footsteps. Someone calling for ice.

I sat still and listened to the chaos outside my door.

Slowly, I closed my eyes.

The smile on my face kept growing.

---

On the eighth day, the lock finally turned.

Nora stood in the doorway, chin lifted.

"Look at you. You're a mess." She clicked her tongue.

"Come on. Mom and Dad want you downstairs. We're going to the office."

"All you have to do is stand in front of everyone and clear my name. One apology. Then we move on."

I got up and walked out.

I was almost at the top of the stairs when Nora stepped close and put her lips near my ear.

"You grew up with nothing and came crawling into my family. Did you really think you could take my parents? My man?"

Her voice was silk over gravel. "Know your place."

I stopped.

Before I could say a single word, Nora let out a piercing shriek.

"Rhea, don't — I'm not trying to take the inheritance, I swear—!"

She threw herself backward and tumbled down the staircase.

"Nora!"

Nathan was at the bottom in seconds. Blake. Mom. Dad.

Nora collapsed against Nathan's chest, tears streaming.

"Don't blame Rhea," she gasped. "I lost my footing. It was an accident."

Blake's eyes were red when he looked up at me.

"You've lived in this house for over twenty years and never once slipped on those stairs," Blake said, his voice cracking.

"Don't stand there and tell me that was an accident."

Mom came up the stairs two steps at a time and hit me across the face — twice, hard, open-palmed.

I'd had nothing but scraps for seven days.

The force of it sent me straight to the floor. The hallway tilted. My ears rang.

Dad stood at the bottom of the staircase and pointed up at me, his voice breaking with rage.

"How did this family produce something like you? What kind of person does this to someone who took her in?"

I pressed my hand to my face and looked down at all of them.

There was a hollow in my chest where something used to be. Just cold air moving through an empty space.

I pulled the corner of my mouth up.

"If I had actually wanted to hurt her," I said, "I wouldn't have needed to be in the same room."

Blake's whole body shook. He turned and kicked the hall table hard enough to send it crashing into the wall.

"Did you hear that?" he shouted at our parents, his voice raw. "Are you listening to her?"

"Nora's lying in Nathan's arms half-conscious and she's standing there acting like the victim!"

Nathan held Nora against him and stared at me with murder in his eyes.

"You are unbelievable. No remorse. Not one word of it."

Dad turned his face away like the sight of me disgusted him.

"Take her back upstairs. Lock the door."

I pulled against the guards' grip and laughed once, short and cold.

"Keep performing like that and she might actually break something. Then you'll have a real problem."

Nora, who had been fake-crying beautifully in Nathan's arms, went suddenly still. Her head dropped.

Mom screamed.

"Nathan — the car, now! Hospital!"

Nathan scooped Nora up and ran. Mom and Dad and Blake scrambled after him.

The courtyard filled with engine noise. Then they were gone.

The guards threw me back in my room.