Chapter 3

"You've always been obsessed with me, haven't you, Sarah?" Ethan sneered, blocking my way out of the small room.

His words hit me, a cold echo from a past I was desperately trying to rewrite.

"All those little gifts, those longing looks. Did you think I didn't notice?"

He laughed, a harsh, ugly sound. "It was pathetic. You, a child, mooning after me."

He picked up a small, crudely painted clay bird from my desk – something I' d made for him when I was twelve, a pathetic symbol of my misplaced affection.

"This kind of thing," he said, his lip curling in disgust. He tossed it against the wall. It shattered into pieces.

"It's disgusting, Sarah. You were my ward."

My chest tightened. Even knowing he was a monster, even with the detachment of my rebirth, his cruelty still found a way to sting.

"Did you really think," he continued, stepping closer, his voice dropping to a venomous whisper, "that if you got rid of Chloe, you' d have a chance? That I' d ever want you?"

The raw hatred in his eyes was familiar. It was the same hatred I' d seen as I died.

I said nothing. There was nothing to say to that.

My silence seemed to fuel his anger.

"Get over it, Sarah. Chloe is the woman I want. The only woman I'll ever want."

I wouldn' t engage. I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of a reaction.

I focused on my plan: university applications, scholarship forms, a flight out of here. Far away.

A few days later, Chloe posted a photo on her social media.

She was wearing a delicate diamond necklace. My mother' s necklace.

It was one of the few things I had left of my parents. Ethan had kept it "for safekeeping."

Now, it was around Chloe's neck, a trophy.

I saw Ethan in the kitchen later.

"Chloe liked your mother's necklace," he said casually, not even looking at me. "It suits her."

I just nodded. "It's just a thing."

My indifference was a shield.