Chapter 1

Tessa Shaw spent three years chasing after me. She brought me breakfast, waited outside my classes, and once stood in the rain for three hours just to see me.

My friends all said I was lucky. An heiress like her was willing to swallow her pride and chase after me.

I thought so too.

The Wards had been in business in this city for generations.

My father ran the company. I owned shares, property, and an old family home.

During those three years, Tessa never once let me worry about the cost of a meal or a gift.

Back then, I truly wanted to marry her. I'd even chosen the house we'd live in after the wedding.

My sister, Hazel Ward, and I even argued about Tessa.

Hazel was 18. My family had spoiled her from birth.

My father liked to act tough, but one sweet word from Hazel could make him give in. My mother would call me if Hazel so much as skipped dinner.

I spoiled her too.

From the moment Hazel met Tessa, she didn't like her. She said Tessa looked at me as if I were something she was deciding whether to buy.

I laughed it off and told Hazel she was too young to understand. I said she was just jealous of her future sister-in-law.

Hazel got so angry that she ignored me for two days.

Even so, on the third day, she came to see me with a birthday cake.

Then she died on the road.

When the police found me, all I could hear in my head was my mother crying.

Tessa had killed Hazel, yet all she said was, "Elliot, take the fall for me."

She slid a family photo across the table.

One corner was smeared with blood.

I knew that shade of red.

Still fresh. Hazel's blood.

"Who was driving?" the officer asked for the third time.

I looked down at the photo.

The Shaws stood outside their old house, with Tessa in the center. Sunlight washed over her face, and her smile was radiant.

The instant I saw that smile, something swelled painfully inside my chest.

She had chased me for three years. She had endured so much for me. Now one accident had left her trembling with fear.

She looked so frightened, so pitiful. Why make her suffer more?

A rush of love that made no sense surged up from my chest, so fierce it nearly choked me.

Every other thought vanished beneath it. I couldn't let her go to prison.

"I was driving."

The officer stared at me.

"You're sure?"

"I'm sure."

I answered without hesitation. It even seemed obvious to me that the officer was asking again only to torment Tessa.

She sat beside me in a spotless white dress, her eyes red.

Under the table, she took my hand.

"Elliot, you love me, don't you?"

Her fingers were freezing.

Her cold fingers touched mine, and that unnatural tenderness tightened again.

"Of course."

My mother heard me from the hallway. She stormed in and slapped me so hard my head snapped to the side.

"Elliot! Your sister was 18! She was on her way to bring you a birthday cake and was thrown more than 30 feet down the road. How could you run from the scene?"

I held my burning cheek. Somehow, my mother's grief seemed unreasonable.

Tessa was terrified, yet none of them even tried to comfort her. Instead, they kept mourning someone who was already dead.

My father pulled my mother back. His eyes were bloodshot.

"Elliot, don't be afraid. Who was driving? Tell me the truth."

Even my father didn't believe me.

Anger flared inside me.

"I already told you. I was driving! Hazel ran into the road in the middle of the night without even looking. How is that anyone else's fault? Honestly, she brought it on herself."

The interview room went silent.

My mother froze for a moment, then came at me screaming, "Who did you say brought it on herself?"

My father shoved past an officer and tried to hit me. Two officers had to hold him back, knocking the table sideways in the struggle.

"Elliot, that was your sister! She was still holding your cake when she died!"

I'd had enough.

"Dead is dead. Is Tessa supposed to pay for this for the rest of her life? Stop pressuring her. She's the one suffering the most."

Tessa leaned against my shoulder and cried quietly.

I put my arm around her. A warm, suffocating certainty filled me: I was protecting the person I loved most in the world.

I couldn't understand my mother's sobs or why my father looked at me as if something else wore his son's face.

To me, they were the ones who had lost their minds.

That day, I signed the confession.

After I was sentenced, Tessa came to see me.

She wore a red coat and held the family photo against the glass.

"Elliot, do you regret it?"

I was about to ask about Hazel's funeral. Then I saw Tessa's smile in the photograph, and that same impossible love flooded back—too sudden to resist.

"No."

She smiled.

"I knew it. No one loves me more than you do. You'll be in there for seven years. I'll take care of your parents, the company, and the house for you."

I actually thought she was kind.

She had killed Hazel, yet I felt grateful that she was still willing to take care of my family.

Before leaving, she raised the family photo to the glass one more time.

"Elliot, remember what you said today."

I nodded.

With her smile still burning behind my eyes, I truly believed I'd done the right thing.