Chapter 2

My body was dead. But I wasn't gone.

I was stuck. Just floating around, following Sabrina everywhere.

Sabrina spent every day kissing up to Mom and Dad, playing house with my baby like she was a doll. One night my baby got sick. Ran a fever. Cried for hours.

Sabrina didn't even get out of bed. Said the crying was giving her a headache. Told the nanny to just take her out of the house.

It was freezing outside.

By the time somebody remembered to check, my baby wasn't breathing.

I wanted to burn every single one of them alive.

But I couldn't do a damn thing. I was a ghost. Couldn't scream. Couldn't touch her. Couldn't even hold her little hand.

I just had to stand there and watch my baby die.

Now I'm back. And this time? I'm not trusting anybody. I'm not swallowing anything. I'm not shrinking for anyone.

Every single thing they took from me, I'm taking back. Piece by piece.

My father snaps out of it.

"Grab her!" he roars. "I don't care if she gets hurt! She puts up a fight, break her goddamn arms!"

His guys come pouring in. A dozen of them. Bats. Batons. Brass knuckles. They form a circle around me, tight.

I glance down at my hands.

The same hands my mother cried over. The same hands she said were too rough for a lady. In my last life, these hands held embroidery needles for her.

This time? They're taking back everything that was mine.

The first guy swings a bat at my head.

I don't dodge. I just raise my hand.

Crack.

The bat splits in half like a dry breadstick.

He doesn't even have time to blink before I slap him across the chest. One hand. He flies backwards twenty feet, takes out a serving cart, and doesn't get up.

Second guy. Third. Fourth.

I stop counting.

Ten seconds later, every single one of them is on the floor. Bleeding. Groaning. Not moving.

Two hundred guests staring at me like I crawled out of a horror movie. Even my father's face has gone white.

I look around at the wreckage. I fix my hair. I smile. Sweet. Perfect. Ladylike.

"What? You guys wanted to see my talent, right?"

"This is it. Hope you enjoyed the show."

Across the room, Sabrina drags herself up on one elbow. Her face is white as paper. She turns her head, coughs, and spits a mouthful of blood onto the marble.

Then she looks at me. Big wet eyes. Trembling lip.

"Nora… what did I ever do to you? Why do you hate me so much?"

One sentence. That's all it took. Now she's the victim.

My mother, who was still curled up in the wreckage clutching her ribs, sees the blood and forgets everything else. She scrambles across the floor on her hands and knees. In her twenty-thousand-dollar gown. To get to Sabrina.

"Baby. Baby, Mama's here. Mama's got you. It's okay, sweetheart, it's okay."

She holds her. Wipes her mouth with her own sleeve. Feels her pulse like she's about to lose her.

Only after she's sure Sabrina's not dying does she finally turn her head and look at me.

And the mask comes off.

The soft, weepy, loving mother I spent my whole life trying to please? Gone. What's left is pure poison.

"You little monster."

She spits it at me.

"I should've left your ass in that dump we picked you up from. I knew it. I always knew it. You can dress a stray up all you want, she's still a stray."

"You know how much money we spent on you? The tutors? The schools? The clothes? And this is what we get? You ungrateful piece of trash."

"Some people just don't belong in this family. I don't care whose blood you've got."

Two hundred guests. Nobody makes a sound.

I don't feel anything.

Last time around, if she so much as frowned at me, I'd stay up all night wondering what I did wrong. I practiced piano till my fingers bled hoping one day she'd smile at me the way she smiled at Sabrina. Just once.

She never did.

Standing here now, listening to her go off, all I feel is how funny it is. How sad and pathetic and small.

She sees me smiling and it snaps something in her.

"Salvatore! What the hell are you standing there for? Grab her! You don't put her down tonight, this girl's gonna burn our whole family to the ground!"

My father's face has gone from white to gray. His fists shake. He takes a step toward me.

"You ungrateful little bitch. I'm gonna say this one time."

"Get on your knees. Say sorry to your mother. Say sorry to your sister. Right now. Or I swear to God, I'll do this myself."

"Say sorry?"

I tilt my head.

"For what?"