Chapter 1

My name is Elena. Or it was. Now, I am just a cold memory clinging to this land.

For three years, I have watched the weeds choke my garden at our lake house in the Adirondacks.

Today, for the first time in three years, a car came up the gravel driveway.

It was a black SUV, sleek and expensive. Liam' s car.

He stepped out, not the man I married, but a stranger in a tailored suit. He was a venture capitalist now, important and impatient. He slammed the car door.

Two men in black suits, his security, got out after him.

Liam looked at the overgrown yard, his face twisted in disgust.

"Look at this place. A mess."

He muttered it to one of his men.

"She was always lazy. Never had any drive. Not like Chloe."

Chloe. The name was a shard of ice in my non-existent heart.

He marched toward the house, his team following. They were here to find me. Not because he missed me. Not because he was worried.

He was here to force me to give Chloe my kidney.

He thinks I ran away. He thinks I' m hiding out of spite. He doesn't know Chloe put me in the ground right behind the house.

He found the front door locked. He signaled to his men. One of them kicked it open. The wood splintered.

I followed them inside. Dust covered everything. My sheet music was scattered on the floor, yellow and curled.

Liam strode through the rooms, his voice echoing.

"Elena! I know you' re here! Stop this stupid game!"

The house was silent. Empty.

He pulled out his phone, dialed my old number. Of course, it was disconnected. He cursed and threw his phone on a dusty couch.

"Find her," he ordered his men. "Search the whole property."

He stormed back outside, his anger a hot, ugly thing. He didn't see the man watching from the edge of the woods.

Marcus.

He was a Marine vet, a handyman I used to hire. I' d give him food, a little cash. He was a good man, just broken by things he' d seen. He was the only one who came looking for me after I disappeared.

Liam saw him now, saw his makeshift tent and the small fire. He marched over.

"You. Have you seen a woman here? My wife, Elena."

Marcus looked up from his bottle. His eyes were red, but they were clear. He knew. He always knew.

He took a slow drink, then lowered the bottle.

"She' s gone."

Liam scoffed. "Gone where? Did she pay you to hide her? I' ll double it."

Marcus just stared at him, his face a mask of grief and contempt.

"She' s dead, Liam."

Liam laughed, a harsh, ugly sound. "Dead? Don' t be ridiculous. She' s dramatic, not dead. This is another one of her tricks to get attention."

Marcus didn't argue. He just pointed a shaky finger toward a small mound of earth a few feet from his camp. A crude wooden cross was stuck in the top.

"I visit her. I keep the animals away."

Liam' s face went dark with rage. He saw the cross as a prop in my "dramatic" game.

He strode over to the mound.

He kicked the wooden cross. It snapped at the base and flew into the bushes.

He stood over my grave, my unmarked, unhallowed grave, and he shouted into the woods. His voice was full of poison.

"Elena, I' m giving you three days! Three days to come out!"

"If you don' t, you will never see Leo again! I swear it!"

Then he turned and marched back to his car, leaving his men to search the empty property.

He was using our son. Our little Leo.

And I, a ghost tied to this land, could only watch. I could not scream. I could not stop him. I could only feel the cold rage that had been my only companion for three years.