Chapter 2

I stopped and turned toward her.

Marissa folded her arms and gave me an order.

"Go to the Ellsworth estate tomorrow and end the engagement.

"Graham gave up on you yesterday. He doesn't want you anymore."

Only then did Graham lower his eyes and look at me, like he was granting a favor.

"Elise, I used to think your problems with Marissa were ordinary sibling jealousy. I never imagined you'd stoop to boiling water and calculated cruelty. Someone like you isn't fit to be my wife."

I blinked at him without understanding.

Most of my memories were already gone.

But that sentence made my chest ache for no reason, and the tears came before I could stop them.

Before the illness, I must have loved Graham very much.

Now I could barely remember anything about him.

Whenever I tried, all I saw was his back turned to me.

I wiped the tears away and nodded.

"All right. I understand."

I opened the notebook and added: [Three: Go to the Ellsworth estate tomorrow and end the engagement.]

I closed it and went to ask Mrs. Pearce, our house manager, for a car to the Old Market District.

My mother stopped me sharply.

"Stop right there. Marissa's shopping for jewelry this afternoon. Find your own way.

"If you take the car in this heat, how's she supposed to go?"

I wanted to argue.

I wanted to ask why my mother couldn't show even a little kindness to her own daughter.

Then I looked back and saw them standing together in perfect harmony.

Marissa leaned between my parents while Graham stood beside them, completing the family portrait.

No words came.

I put on a wide-brimmed sun hat and walked out into the heat alone.

Behind me, I heard my mother mutter,

"Consider it a lesson."

Then Graham's low voice followed.

"She brought it on herself."

The Winslow estate stood outside Stonewick, and the nearest commercial district was more than an hour away on foot.

Even under the hat, heat came up off the pavement. By the time I reached Old Market, my clothes clung to my back and the street tilted under me.

At the dessert house, I changed into a plain apron and started cutting fruit and packing shaved ice in the kitchen.

It was the height of summer and a holiday weekend, so every table was full.

I never stopped moving. My fingers went pale and swollen and almost numb from the ice water.

Near four in the afternoon, the crowd finally thinned.

I pressed a hand to my aching stomach and sat down to eat a few bites of the stale sandwich I'd brought.

Marissa's voice came from above me.

She waved a stack of large bills and gave me a brilliant smile.

"Elise, employees shouldn't hide in corners during a shift.

"Make me five hundred parfaits. The most complicated seven-layer design you've got."

Rita, one of the kitchen supervisors who knew me, stepped forward.

"Miss, she hasn't eaten all day. Take a table out front and we'll put other people on your order."

Marissa rounded on her.

"Nobody asked you. I want her to make them.

"If she doesn't finish, I'll wreck this place and make sure your manager docks every paycheck in the building."

I didn't want anyone else punished because of me.

I set down the untouched sandwich and forced myself upright while the dark crept in at the edges of my vision.

Five hundred parfaits couldn't be finished even if I worked till dawn.

When I looked up, Graham was standing behind Marissa.

His hands stayed in his pockets while he watched her work on me, his face blank.

I had nowhere else to turn, so I asked him for help.

"Graham, could you tell Marissa that five hundred..."

He cut me off.

"Stop performing, Elise. The Winslows aren't so poor they need your wages. You took this job in this heat so strangers would pity you and you could accuse Marissa later.

"What's wrong? Can't keep the act going?"

I couldn't see where the accusation came from.

I was working because I needed money for my own future.

I opened my mouth to explain.

Marissa cut in, impatient.

"Are you making them or not?

"Do you want me to start breaking things?"

I clenched my teeth and worked from late afternoon until nearly midnight.

My stomach cramped the whole time, and I never got a drink.

A few of the others tried to help me on the quiet, but Marissa drove them off.

"Anyone who helps her is fired too."

I kept going until the building was nearly empty.

Graham watched my bloodless face with contempt.

He took every sign of illness as part of the performance.

When he had his assistants carry off all five hundred desserts, he still found time to mock me.

"I underestimated you, Elise.

"You pretend not to remember, and now you perform suffering this well. You'd risk your life for one moment of sympathy."

I was too worn out to answer.

It was after midnight before I dragged myself back to the Winslow estate, my legs barely holding me.

The hunger had turned into nausea, and the dark pulsed at the edges of my sight.

Because of the size of the order, Dee gave me an extra fifty dollars.

Good.

That would buy enough food for three days.

I'd barely stepped through the door.

Then a sharp crack split the air.

A slap caught me across the face and put me flat on the floor.