Chapter 3

Back home, I call out for her.

"Nana Ruth?"

She's been with me since I was three years old—more mother to me than anyone. After I went blind, she never left my side. She fed me, dressed me, walked me through the house with her arm locked in mine.

No answer.

I feel along the wall down the hall. Her slippers aren't by the door. Her reading glasses aren't on the side table. Her knitting basket is gone.

"Looking for that old woman?"

One of the maids side-eyes me, voice dripping with amusement.

"Think I saw her near the storage room this morning. Maybe check for yourself?"

A bad feeling rises in my gut. I make my way toward the storage room.

I'm halfway there when I hear it—

"Mommy!"

Chloe's voice echoes from the doorway. She's standing there, clutching her stuffed bunny.

"My bunny fell in there. Can you get it for me?"

The moment I push open the door, I see it—hundreds of thumbtacks scattered across the floor, glinting under the dim light.

I instinctively step back.

"Chloe?"

"Please, Mommy! Daddy gave it to me for my birthday last year!"

Her eyes go wide. Her lip trembles in that perfect little pout.

I take a deep breath and say quietly:

"Okay."

I grit my teeth and step forward, one agonizing step at a time. The tacks puncture the soles of my feet instantly. Pain shoots up my legs so hard I nearly collapse.

I pick up the stuffed bunny. Turn around. Hand it to her.

She takes it, looks down at the blood beneath my feet, and bursts out laughing.

"Blind Mommy can't even see thumbtacks on the floor! So stupid!!"

Adrian shows up in the doorway. He looks at the mess and frowns.

"You've been out all day, you must be tired. Come downstairs. Dinner's ready."

He doesn't ask a single question about my feet.

At the dinner table, Vivienne sits beside Adrian like she belongs there more than I ever did.

"Evelyn, I found a traditional remedy. Bone broth from high-quality meat. Supposed to help with nerve regeneration."

Vivienne pushes a bowl of dark, thick broth across the table toward me.

Adrian picks up the spoon and brings it to my lips.

"Drink up. Vivienne went through a lot of trouble to get this."

The moment the spoon touches my lips, my blood runs cold.

In the broth, half-submerged in the dark liquid, a chunk of meat. And embedded in it—a small, curved piece of titanium.

I've felt that shape a hundred times. Every night for six years, I massaged Nana Ruth's bad knee. The titanium plate from her surgery pressed against her skin in a ridge I traced with my fingers so many times I could draw it from memory.

I shove the bowl away. It crashes to the floor. My stomach turns inside out.

"What the hell is wrong with you now?"

Adrian glares at me, annoyed.

I point at the bowl. My fingers tremble. The words won't come.

Adrian looks at the soup splattered across the floor, then his jaw sets.

"It's just a high-end remedy! Vivienne went out of her way to find this for you. What are you throwing a fit about?"

When I still refuse, his voice turns cold.

"Six years! Your eyes are still useless. Are you planning to be a burden to me and Chloe for the rest of our lives?!"

He picks up another spoonful and forces it to my lips.

I clamp my jaw shut. The broth runs down my chin.

The moment a drop hits the back of my throat, I double over and throw up.

"Gross! She can't even eat without making a mess!"

Chloe wrinkles her nose.

Vivienne dabs her mouth with a napkin, cool and unbothered. She takes Chloe's hand and stands.

"If Evelyn doesn't appreciate the help, don't force her."

"Come on, sweetie. Let Miss Viv take you and Daddy out for something nice."

The staff crowd in, cursing under their breath as they clean up.

"It's just soup! Was all that really necessary?!"

"How does someone like you even deserve Adrian?"

Another one kicks me hard in the side.

"Thorne Group is where it is today because of Adrian. If you know what's good for you, you'll get lost!"

I curl up on the floor, absorbing every blow, every insult.

And I laugh.

"Thorne Group is where it is today because of Adrian?"

I almost choke on the words.

"That's not even close."

The staff look at me like I've lost my mind.

"If not Adrian, then who? You? The blind freak?!"

"Trust me—Adrian could keep Thorne Group running just fine without you!"

I close my eyes.

Fine then. Let's put that to the test.