Chapter 3

In the parking garage, Jameson offered to help her upstairs.

"You wait here," she insisted. "It won't take long."

She maneuvered her wheelchair out of his car and rolled herself into the elevator.

When she opened the apartment door, Donovan and Karmen were there. Karmen was lounging on the sofa, one of Hailey's expensive silk face masks on. Donovan was in the kitchen, carefully peeling a peach for her.

"Karmen, babe, I peeled your favorite white peach," Donovan said as he walked out of the kitchen with a small plate. He froze when he saw Hailey.

His eyes traveled from her face down to the thick cast on her leg.

"What did you do now?" His voice was full of annoyance. "The tech conference is next week. Are you trying to embarrass me, showing up in a wheelchair?"

"Oh, Hailey," Karmen giggled from the couch. "You're not really going to be the bride in a wheelchair, are you? How tacky."

Karmen held out the plate of peaches Donovan had just given her. "Donovan stood in line forever to get these organic peaches from the farmer's market. You should have some."

Hailey stared at the peaches. She had begged Donovan for weeks to go to that market with her. He always said he was too busy with work.

"No thanks," Hailey said, her voice flat. "I don't want anything you've touched."

She turned her wheelchair toward the bedroom to get her things.

"Ah-" Karmen cried out as if she'd been bumped. The plate of peaches crashed to the floor. "Hailey, I know you don't like me, but you didn't have to knock over the fruit Donovan worked so hard to get!"

As Karmen knelt to pick up the broken plate, she "accidentally" sliced her finger on a shard.

"Karmen, don't touch it," Donovan rushed over. He pulled her up and led her to the sofa, tending to the tiny cut as if it were a mortal wound.

He glared at Hailey. "She's a guest in our home, Hailey. I am so disappointed in you."

"I'm glad you're happy," she replied, wheeling herself into the bedroom.

She was only there for one thing: her grandmother's vintage locket.

Her grandmother had given it to her on her sixteenth birthday, just before she died. "Our Hailey is all grown up," she had said, her voice weak. "Grandma can't be with you forever. When you're scared, hold this tight, and know I'm always with you."

She wore it until the chain was nearly broken, then stored it safely in the jewelry box on her dresser.

Today, she would take the locket and leave forever.

But it wasn't there. She searched the drawer, then the next, her movements frantic. She knew she had left it right here.

She wheeled herself back into the living room, her hands shaking with fury. As she was about to ask Donovan if he had seen it, the doorbell rang.