Chapter 4

"W-what are you talking about?"

Zachary forced a miserable smile, his panicked gaze darting toward Gwen. "What do you mean, stolen? Keira's heart... a kind person donated it."

Gwen recovered and stepped in front of Zachary, her face dark with anger. "Honey! Are you so lost in grief that you're talking nonsense now? It's Keira's birthday. Don't make a scene!"

"A scene?"

I chuckled, glanced at the broken glass, and leisurely straightened my collar. "I was only joking. Look how frightened you both are. Can't anyone take a joke these days?"

I bent down, picked up the toy pistol Keira dropped, and tried to press it back into her hands, my voice chillingly gentle. "Take it, Keira. I was just joking."

Keira shrank from my gaze and hid behind Zachary, refusing to take it.

Gwen grabbed my wrist hard enough to hurt. "Enough. You're obviously exhausted and not in a good state of mind. Let's go home."

"We haven't eaten yet."

I pulled free and sat at the dining table. "You made all this food. It would be a shame to waste it. Besides, I'd like to hear how you finally found that 'kind donor,' Zachary."

Zachary swayed and looked to Gwen for help.

Gwen gritted her teeth and reluctantly sat down. She put a rib on my plate. "Just eat. Then we're leaving."

The food tasted like cardboard.

During the meal, I deliberately acted distracted.

Every so often, I placed food in front of the empty chair beside me and murmured, "Jade, have some of this. It's your favorite steak."

"Jade, don't run so fast. You might fall."

"Jade, does your heart hurt? Let me rub it for you..."

Every time I spoke, Zachary's hand shook. A vein throbbed at Gwen's temple. Several times, she nearly lost her temper, but held back because we were at Zachary's house.

Halfway through the meal, I suddenly put down my fork and looked at Gwen seriously. "Gwen, I dreamed about Jade last night."

Gwen's guilty conscience and my erratic behavior left her on edge. "What did you dream this time?"

"She told me she's so cold down there. There's a big hole in her chest, and it won't stop bleeding."

I lowered my voice to an ominous murmur. "She also said someone gave her a peach. That person had a scar on their hand."

Gwen instinctively pulled back her left hand. A faint scar marked the skin between her thumb and index finger. She cut herself there while chopping vegetables as a child.