Chapter 3

I took some fever medicine, dabbed antiseptic on the cut on my hand, and looked up at Evan coldly.

"You had food and chose not to eat. Whose fault is that?"

The faint curve of Evan's mouth froze.

Emotion flickered in his eyes before hardening into disgust.

"Who knows what else you might've put in the food? I wouldn't dare eat anything touched by your filthy hands."

I pressed my lips together.

He was the same boy who used to pester me every day, insisting I make him sandwiches to take to school so he could show them off.

I put the medicine kit back and swallowed the bitterness in my throat.

My voice was steady, but taut as a drawn string. "Fine. Then don't take the stomach medicine either."

I turned and headed upstairs without looking back.

To my surprise, Evan followed and blocked my way at the stairs.

"Maren, what exactly are you throwing a fit about?"

I looked up at him. "What am I doing?"

Evan took a deep breath.

"I know you've liked me since we were kids. But you were gone for eight years!

"For those eight years, Sienna was the one who stayed here with your parents and me. She filled the void you left behind. Is it really so wrong for us to care about her?

"There's a limit to how much you can act out."

Was it my fault I'd gone missing for eight years?

I almost laughed, but tears blurred my vision.

I pushed past him.

"I stopped liking you a long time ago."

Evan clearly didn't believe me. He grabbed my wrist and lifted my arm, his grip painfully tight.

"Then tell me this. After all these years, why are you still wearing that?"

I followed his gaze to the silver bracelet around my wrist.

It wasn't worth much.

Evan had bought it for my birthday when he was twelve, after saving his allowance for a long time.

Back when I was trapped in that remote mountain community, terrified I might never make it out alive, that bracelet had given me the strength to keep going more times than I could count.

I kept telling myself that if I escaped, I could see Evan again.

I could see Mom and Dad.

I couldn't die there.

But when I finally came home, Sienna was the one everyone adored.

Around her wrist was the Prescott family's heirloom bangle, the one Evan had once told me he would save for the woman he planned to marry.

He had promised it would be mine when we grew up.

I looked down at the faded silver bracelet and smiled bitterly.

It had fit perfectly when I was a teenager. Now it was too tight.

I tried to force it over my hand, scraping the skin on the back of my hand raw, but it still wouldn't come off.

Evan scoffed.

"What's with the act? If you really don't want it, cut your hand off."

He gave me a cold look.

"Seriously, Maren. If you really don't like me anymore, why did you go to all that trouble to drug me the moment you came back?

"It's because Sienna made you feel threatened, isn't it?"

Threatened?

Maybe I had felt that way in my previous life.

But no matter how hard I tried, I would never matter to them the way Sienna did.

I wasn't going to be that stupid again.

I was done waiting for people who no longer loved me to toss me scraps of attention.

I turned and went back downstairs to the kitchen.

The moment I picked up a knife, panic flashed across Evan's face.

"Maren, are you insane?

"Don't think cutting off your hand to make me feel sorry for you is going to..."

Crack!

Before he could finish, the blade came down.

The silver bracelet snapped in two.

"There. You can have it back. Is that enough?"

Expressionless, I held out the two broken halves.

Evan pressed his lips into a thin line. His eyes churned with emotions I'd never seen in them before.