Chapter 1 1

The match flared to life, a small, violent burst of orange in the dim room. Evangeline Watson watched the flame eat its way down the wood, the smell of sulfur briefly masking the scent of the expensive roast cooling on the dining table. It was the third time she had lit the candle. The third time she had waited for the wax to pool and harden, counting the minutes until the flame threatened to burn her fingertips.

She blew it out. Smoke curled up in a thin, grey ribbon, disappearing into the high ceilings of the Manhattan penthouse that never quite felt like a home. It felt like a museum exhibit where she was the unauthorized visitor.

Evangeline picked up her phone. No messages. No missed calls. The screen was a black mirror reflecting her own pale, anxious face. It was their third wedding anniversary.

She touched the small velvet box sitting next to his empty plate. Inside was a platinum tie clip she had designed herself, embedding a small sapphire on the underside where only he would know it existed. It was subtle. Quiet. Just like their marriage.

Earlier that morning, Cedric Malone had looked right through her while drinking his espresso. He hadn't mentioned the date. He hadn't even mentioned the weather. He had just checked his watch, adjusted his cuffs, and left.

The silence in the apartment was heavy, pressing against her eardrums. It was a physical weight, suffocating and cold.

Then, the phone rang.

The sound was so sharp in the quiet room that Evangeline flinched, her knee knocking against the table leg. She scrambled to grab it, her heart leaping into her throat. Cedric. It had to be him. He was late, he was sorry, he was on his way.

But the name on the screen wasn't Cedric.

St. Jude's Hospital.

The blood drained from her face so fast it left her dizzy. Her fingers trembled as she slid the icon to answer.

"Hello?" Her voice was a cracked whisper.

"Mrs. Malone? This is Dr. Vance." The voice on the other end was professional, clipped, and devoid of the warmth doctors usually tried to fake. "I'm calling regarding your grandmother, Nana Watson."

"Is she okay?" Evangeline stood up, her chair scraping loudly against the floor. "Did she fall again?"

"You need to come to the hospital immediately, Mrs. Malone. She's gone into cardiac arrest. We are doing everything we can, but..."

The rest of the sentence turned into a buzz of white noise. Evangeline's knees buckled, and she had to grab the edge of the dining table to keep from hitting the floor. The room tilted.

"I'm coming," she gasped.

She didn't grab a coat. She didn't blow out the other candles. She grabbed her car keys, leaving the anniversary gift sitting on the table like a tombstone for a marriage that was already dead, and ran out the door.

The rain in New York was unforgiving. It slashed against the windshield of her modest sedan, blurring the neon lights of the city into streaks of red and yellow. Evangeline drove with a desperation that bordered on madness. She honked at a yellow cab that drifted into her lane, her hand slamming against the steering wheel.

"Move!" she screamed, though the driver couldn't hear her. Tears hot and stinging blurred her vision, mixing with the glare of the streetlights.

Nana was all she had. The only person who had ever looked at Evangeline and seen a person, not a burden. Not a charity case. If Nana was gone...

Evangeline abandoned her car at the emergency entrance, ignoring the security guard shouting about a "No Parking" zone. She sprinted through the automatic doors, the smell of antiseptic and floor wax hitting her like a wall.

"Nana Watson," she panted, gripping the reception desk. "Where is she?"

The nurse behind the glass looked up slowly, her eyes pitying. "Room 402. But the doctor is already there."

Evangeline didn't wait for the elevator. She took the stairs, her lungs burning, her legs feeling like lead. She burst into the fourth-floor hallway. It was eerily quiet. Too quiet.

Dr. Vance stepped out of Room 402. He pulled his surgical mask down, his expression grim. He looked at Evangeline, wet hair plastered to her face, chest heaving, and he shook his head slowly.

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Malone."

The words hit her like a physical blow to the stomach. Evangeline stumbled back, her back hitting the cold corridor wall.

"No," she whispered. "No, you said you were trying. You said..."

"We did everything we could. Her heart just... gave out."

Evangeline pushed past him. She had to see. She had to know it wasn't a mistake.

She entered the room. The machines were silent. The monitors were dark. Nana lay on the bed, looking smaller than Evangeline had ever seen her. Her skin was already taking on a waxen, grey pallor.

"Nana?" Evangeline walked to the bedside, her legs trembling so hard she could barely stand. She reached out and took Nana's hand. It was cooling.

A scream built in her throat, a raw, jagged thing, but it got stuck there, choking her. She collapsed onto the side of the bed, burying her face in Nana's sheets, sobbing uncontrollably. The grief was a physical tearing in her chest, a void opening up to swallow her whole.

"Don't leave me," she begged into the silence. "Please, don't leave me here alone."

She stayed there for minutes, maybe hours. Time had lost its shape.

As her sobbing subsided into dry, hacking gasps, a scent drifted to her nose. It was faint, lingering in the air above the antiseptic smell of the hospital.

Heavy. Floral. Cloying.

Evangeline lifted her head, sniffing the air. Nana never wore perfume. She was allergic to strong scents. They gave her migraines.

Evangeline turned to the nurse who was quietly tidying up the medical tray in the corner.

"Who was here?" Evangeline asked. Her voice was hoarse, but there was a sudden, sharp edge to it.

The nurse froze. She didn't turn around immediately. She fidgeted with a clipboard, her shoulders tense.

"Just the medical staff, ma'am," the nurse muttered.

"Liar." Evangeline stood up. The grief was still there, heavy and crushing, but a spark of anger was igniting in the center of it. "I smell it. Someone was here. Someone wearing a strong perfume."

The nurse finally turned. She wouldn't meet Evangeline's eyes. "A... a family friend came by earlier. Just to drop off some flowers. But she left before the cardiac event."

"Who?" Evangeline demanded, stepping closer.

"I... I didn't catch the name."

Evangeline knew that scent. It was a suffocating gardenia, the kind she smelled on Cedric's collars when he came home late. The signature scent that lingered in the elevators of the Malone building.

Chloie Serrano.

Rage, hot and blinding, flared through her veins. Chloie had been here. Chloie, who had made Evangeline's life a living hell for three years, who had mocked Nana's poverty, had been in this room right before Nana died.

Footsteps echoed from the hallway. Firm. Authoritative. The sound of expensive leather shoes hitting linoleum with purpose.

Evangeline turned toward the door just as Cedric Malone walked in.

He was impeccable. His suit was crisp, not a wrinkle in sight, despite the rain outside. He looked like he had just stepped out of a board meeting, which he probably had. He looked entirely out of place in this room of death and grief.

He didn't rush to her. He didn't open his arms. He stopped three feet away, his dark eyes scanning the room, assessing the situation with the cold detachment of a man calculating a loss on a spreadsheet.

"What time did she pass?" Cedric asked, looking past Evangeline to Dr. Vance.

Evangeline stared at her husband. She was shaking, her world had just ended, and he was asking for the time of death like he was checking a train schedule.

"19:42," the doctor replied softly.

Cedric nodded once. He finally looked at Evangeline. There was no softness in his gaze. No pity. Just a mild annoyance, as if her grief was an inconvenience to his evening.

"She was here," Evangeline said, her voice trembling with a mix of sorrow and fury. She pointed a shaking finger at the empty space beside the bed. "Chloie was here."

Cedric frowned, a deep crease appearing between his eyebrows. "Evangeline, stop. You're hysterical."

"I smell her perfume, Cedric! Ask the nurse! She was here, and then Nana died!" Evangeline grabbed Cedric's lapels, desperate for him to believe her, desperate for him to be on her side just this once. "She did something. I know she did."

Cedric peeled her hands off his suit gently but firmly. He held her wrists for a second, creating a distance between them.

"Chloie is at the charity gala tonight. I saw the press photos," Cedric said, his voice calm and patronizing. "You are grieving, and you are imagining things. Don't look for a villain where there isn't one."

"Check the visitor log!" Evangeline screamed, pulling away from him.

Cedric sighed, checking his watch. "The nurse already told me the log hasn't been updated since the morning shift. Evangeline, pull yourself together. Making a scene won't bring her back."

"A scene?" Evangeline laughed, a broken, hysterical sound. "My grandmother is dead, and you're worried about a scene?"

"I have a meeting with the board in an hour," Cedric said, straightening his jacket. "I handled the arrangements. The car is downstairs to take you home."

He turned to leave. Just like that.

Evangeline looked from Nana's still, cold body to her husband's retreating back. The realization hit her harder than the news of the death.

She was alone. Truly, completely alone.

The tears stopped. The shaking stopped. Something inside her chest, something soft and hopeful that she had nurtured for three years of a loveless marriage, finally snapped.