Chapter 1

My nanny had just helped me into my wheelchair when I heard one of the clan members who'd come for the ceremony mutter under his breath.

"What happened this time? Did he pick the wrong one again?"

"What a waste. It's been six full years. Even a fool would've gotten it right by now, and he's supposed to have a doctorate in medicine?"

At that, Mindy Bloom stepped forward, hands on her hips, clearly offended.

"Who says Keith picked the wrong one? He goes up that mountain every year and brews me a stalk of the Everroot with his own hands. Don't believe me? Look."

She pulled out her phone, beaming with pride. In the photo, the herb was pure white from root to tip, its leaves glowing faintly blue, nothing like the ordinary weeds Keith always brought back for me.

I dug my nails into my palms. My heart ached in slow, sour waves.

I should have seen it sooner.

Mindy now looked nothing like the girl I'd first met six years earlier. Her skin had turned porcelain-pale, and her figure had filled out into something far more striking.

I'd told myself she was just growing up. Now I knew the real reason.

What I couldn't stomach was that Keith had been the one pushing it along the whole time.

He was always finding excuses for her, telling me she was young and struggling with depression, and that I should give her room.

On my birthday one year, Keith had given me a bracelet, one he swore he'd designed himself, one of a kind anywhere in the world.

Mindy took one look at it and said she wanted it too.

When I refused, she swallowed a bottle of pills that same night and sent Keith a suicide note.

Keith tore into me on the spot, warning me that if anything happened to her, he'd never forgive me.

The birthday dinner fell apart in an awkward silence. Keith didn't come home that night, and his phone went straight to voicemail. Just as I was starting to panic, the two of them strolled back in together, laughing.

Mindy flashed me a look the moment she stepped through the door and raised her wrist.

The same bracelet, identical to mine, sat there on her arm.

The second she said it out loud, the older relatives in the room couldn't hold back.

"What the hell?"

"That's Tori's life we're talking about!"

"You just handed it to someone else? How could you do that?"

At that, Mindy pouted, sniffled, and let tears the size of beans roll down her cheeks right on cue.

Before she could even speak, Keith stepped in front of her and glared at me, furious.

"Tori, it's just a stalk of grass. It's not like I'm never picking you one again. Why are you setting these people on Mindy? I'm telling you right now, apologize to her."

I almost wanted to laugh.

Just a bracelet. Just a stalk of grass.

All those years, every time the sickness hit and the pain became unbearable, he'd stayed by my side, buried in medical texts, eyes bloodshot, refusing to stop until he found an answer.

He'd promised me he'd cure me.

Turns out the whole thing had just been a joke, and I was the punchline.

His medicine was fake. His promises were fake. Even his love had been fake.

I forced down the pressure building in my chest and gave him a smile.

"Fine. I'll apologize, to you and to Mindy both. You're right. It's just a stalk of grass. Not worth fighting over."

Keith studied me for a long moment before a smug little smile crept across his face.

"Mindy's right. You're so in love with me you can't function without me. Even after knowing the truth, you'd never make things hard for me."

He shook his head, laughing to himself, looking almost pleased with how irresistible he apparently was.

But inside my chest, it felt like a draft had blown straight through me, and every last bit of warmth had gone with it.