Chapter 2

Maybe Chloe's safe return had loosened whatever knot of anger and favoritism had hardened Ethan's heart.

Maybe he thought that since Chloe was fine, my punishment could finally end.

My spirit drifted after him. I watched my tall, broad-shouldered brother walking ahead of me, and I felt nothing at all.

What use was concern that came after my body had already gone cold?

The kennel in the backyard looked exactly as it had before I died.

A heavy iron chain lay abandoned on the ground. One end was fastened to a wooden post; the clasp at the other was streaked with rust.

Ethan stood in front of the kennel a long time without speaking.

There was no trace that I'd ever been there, unless despair could linger in the air like a scent.

"Mrs. Webb!" He straightened and shouted to the housekeeper hanging laundry nearby. "Where is she? Where's the person who was locked in here?"

Doreen Webb hurried over with an eager, frightened smile.

She'd been the first person to find me after I died. At the sight of my stiff body she'd screamed and collapsed onto the frozen ground.

"E-Ethan…" Her gaze darted away as she pointed at the broken chain. "I don't know. She was still here yesterday when I checked. Maybe the chain wasn't secure and she worked herself loose. She must have run off."

"Run off?" Ethan repeated. The last trace of warmth drained out of his voice, inch by inch.

"Yes, exactly." When he didn't explode at once, Doreen grew bolder. "You know what she's like. A girl raised in foster care is bound to be wild. Some of them never learn to live with people.

"Your family gave her food, clothes, and a roof, and she was never grateful once. Who knows how much resentment she was carrying around? The moment she saw an opening, of course she ran."

"She ran." Ethan gave a cold laugh. Anger and contempt swept away his guilt.

He kicked the kennel door so hard the wood cracked against its frame.

"Ungrateful little wretch!" he snarled through his teeth. "What did this family ever do to deserve her? Chloe begged us for months to bring her home.

"We let her live under our roof. We fed her and clothed her, and this is how she pays us back? She takes off without a word, without so much as an explanation. She really is an animal."

I watched rage twist my brother's face, and the last ember of warmth I'd once called family went out inside me.

He didn't know that Doreen had found my frozen body the morning after I died.

She'd been terrified of taking the blame, and even more terrified that something so unlucky would cling to her. So after dark she rolled me up in a threadbare bedsheet and threw me out like a bag of garbage, in the loneliest stretch of wasteland in the woods west of the gated community.

Because my body was never laid to rest, my soul couldn't move on.

I could only remain like the most faithful audience in the world, watching day after day as the Carters lavished twice as much love on the daughter they'd miraculously gotten back.

Laughter filled the living room again.

Mom held Chloe's hands and fussed over her, desperate to make up for every moment of worry.

Dad kept a stern face, but the adoration in his eyes gave him away. He even let Chloe charge a brand-new sports car to his credit card.

After his brief flare of anger, Ethan soon melted under her wheedling and the gifts she'd brought him.

Once more, they were a happy family.

Then, on the seventh day, a call from the police shattered that false peace.