Chapter 1

I threw myself on top of her, shaking her, crying so hard I couldn't breathe.

"Mom... please don't go..."

She looked at me. Her eyes were hollow, not a flicker of light left.

I remembered when I was little, she wasn't like this.

She used to smile, sing, hold me and tell me stories.

But then Mom’s sister Vanessa came, and everything changed.

Vanessa told Dad through tears that Mom had stolen the love of her foster parents. But Mom had only been cast out for years and was the real daughter, finally come home.

Vanessa spread lies about her too. Said Mom was calculating and manipulative, that she'd drugged Dad to sleep her way into his life.

Dad had grown up with Vanessa. He believed her.

After that, he loved Mom and hated her in equal measure, constantly using hypnosis to test whether she truly loved him.

The first time, he pretended to go bankrupt, a total collapse. Mom didn't leave. She hauled bricks at a construction site, washed dishes at a restaurant, worked herself to bleeding hands just to keep food on the table.

Dad was satisfied.

The second time he pretended to be disfigured. Third time, a terminal illness. Fourth time, a lowlife gangster. Fifth time, and on and on.

Ninety-nine times.

Each time, Mom fell in love with him all over again.

Dad thought that was love.

But Mom had told me once: her love used to be so full. Now it had been worn down to almost nothing.

By the time Dad had broken her completely, she finally understood the truth. A system had been controlling her all along. She was on a mission to "redeem the villain."

She was giving up.

The water in the tub was ice cold, cold enough to terrify me. I choked back sobs and dialed 911.

When Mom was lying in the hospital bed, Dad walked in, fresh from the office in a tailored suit, looking like he owned the world.

Mom's face was white as paper.

She pulled out a document.

"Ethan. Sign it."

Her voice was barely there, like speaking cost everything she had left.

Dad took the separation agreement and glanced at it. His expression went flat.

He tore it to pieces.

"Miranda. What the hell is this?"

"You want to leave me?"

"Yes." She looked at him calmly. "We're done."

"Are you out of your mind?"

He grabbed her shoulders, hard enough that she couldn't hold back a sound.

"I'm just tired."

Mom smiled, something strange and bruised in it, the kind of smile that makes you want to cry.

"I used to tell myself, if I just try hard enough, you'll love me. Really love me."

"But I get it now."

"Ethan Carter, you never loved me. You just liked being loved like someone would die for you."

Dad took a step back, like something had hit him in the chest.

"That's not true. My tests were to prove you were worth it. If you'd passed all of them, I would've only ever wanted you."

"I don't want that."

Mom cut him off.

"I don't want any of it."

She coughed twice, and a thread of red appeared at the corner of her mouth.

Dad stared at her, eyes bloodshot, like he hadn't seen it.

"You don't want it? Then what do you want?"

"I’m warning you, Miranda. You’ll never get away from me."

The door swung open. Vanessa walked in.

She had golden waves of hair and a tight burgundy dress, the whole package, glamorous and somehow innocent-looking at the same time.

She drifted to Dad's side and melted into him like she had no bones.

"If Miranda wants to leave, let her go. You still have me."

She paused.

"And now... there's a baby too."