Chapter 3

The hospital lights were too bright, the smell of antiseptic too sharp. The doctor told me I had a concussion. He asked me how I fell. I lied. I said I tripped. It felt pathetic to admit my boyfriend had pushed me and left me on the floor.

My hand was the real problem. The specialist they called in was grim. He said the nerve graft had been done crudely. There was significant damage. He couldn't promise a full recovery. He couldn't promise I would ever play the cello professionally again.

Each word was a nail in the coffin of my dreams.

My phone rang. It was Mrs. Lester, Ethan' s mother. Her voice was warm, a stark contrast to the coldness that now defined my world.

"Jocelyn, dear. I heard there was an accident. Are you alright? I' m having a small family dinner tonight. Please, you must come. I insist."

I didn' t want to go. I didn' t want to see any of them. But Mrs. Lester had always been kind to me. She saw something in me her son was blind to. She had even tried, subtly, to set me up with other young men from "good families," whispering to me at parties that I deserved someone who saw me as an equal, not a project. I felt I owed her an explanation for my sudden departure.

So I went.

The Lester mansion was as opulent as ever. The moment I stepped into the dining room, my heart sank. Molly was there, sitting next to Ethan, looking pale and fragile. She gave me a weak, pitying smile.

The dinner was tense. I picked at my food, the silence thick with unspoken accusations. Then, halfway through the main course, it happened.

Molly started coughing, her hand flying to her throat. She gasped for air, her face turning red.

"My allergy... shellfish..." she choked out, pointing a trembling finger at her plate.

Chaos erupted. Ethan leaped to his feet, shouting for an EpiPen. A new housemaid, a young, terrified-looking girl, rushed in.

As the panic subsided and Molly was theatrically breathing into a paper bag, the maid turned to Mrs. Lester, tears streaming down her face.

"It was her," the maid sobbed, pointing directly at me. "I saw her. She came into the kitchen before dinner. She put something in Miss Blakely' s food."