Introduction

The Hugheses' estate shimmered with white roses and sunlight, a picture-perfect setting for Caleb' s wedding.

I stood at the edge of the manicured lawn, a single dark spot in a sea of pastel suits.

He was marrying a kind schoolteacher named Nicole, a carefully chosen part of the gilded cage his adoptive parents had built around him.

I just looked past them, toward the white tent where Caleb stood, a stranger in his expensive tuxedo.

He looked like the town' s beloved veterinarian, the perfect son.

But I knew the real Caleb, the boy who hid under flimsy beds in the foster home, the one who dreamed of the ocean.

As he cut the cake, I slipped through the guests, a quiet shadow.

I leaned in close, lips beside his ear.

"It' s okay to be you."

For a terrifying second, nothing happened.

Then, his entire body went rigid.

The polite smile shattered like porcelain.

He snatched the cake knife and lunged, stabbing Nicole repeatedly.

Blood bloomed across her white dress, turning the perfect wedding into a scene of horror.

They took Caleb, catatonic, and me, silent.

Detective Stevens looked at me, weary and cynical.

"You whispered something in his ear, and he butchered his new bride. What did you say?"

I stayed silent.

They called me a witch, a puppet master, a monster.

I watched Nicole' s parents weep on TV, calling for my arrest, and felt a deep, hollow ache for them, for her.

No one understood.

Five years later, the Hugheses announced Caleb' s "recovery" and a grand welcome-home party, on the anniversary of the wedding.

They were putting him back in his cage, this time with reinforced bars.

I knew it was time.

I pulled out the navy dress.