Chapter 4

Sunday evening, Reginald hosted a small dinner party for several Ivy League admissions officers. It was meant to seal the deal on Alex and Eve's early acceptance applications.

As the price, I was required to completely vanish from sight.

"Absolutely no coming downstairs. Not one step. Don't you dare embarrass us." Before the guests arrived, Helen stood at my bedroom door, her voice low and sharp with warning.

"Understood."

I closed the door, sat on the edge of my bed, and went still.

At eight o'clock, elegant classical music and polite laughter drifted up from downstairs.

Suddenly, my door swung open. Eve walked in carrying a glass of deep red cranberry juice.

She wore a white evening gown. The second she pushed the door shut behind her, the sweet smile melted off her face, replaced by something cold and mechanical.

"Lonely up here all by yourself, Melody?"

I didn't respond.

"Want to know the funny part?"

She swirled the glass, eyes fixed on me. "They turned you into the perfect trained dog in that hellhole, but they still think you're disgusting. One little push, and they'll throw you right back in the garbage where you belong."

Before I could process her words, she flicked her wrist. The dark liquid splashed across her white dress in a violent arc.

Then she gripped the crystal glass with both hands and snapped the stem with a sharp twist.

Crack. The broken edge gleamed like a blade.

She stared directly at me and dragged the jagged glass down her forearm. Blood welled up instantly, thick and bright. Several drops hit my white socks.

Before I could move, she seized my hand and pressed my fingers into the wound.

"What are you doing?" My voice came out flat, empty.

She didn't answer. Just smiled—cold and triumphant—and backed toward the staircase.

Then her expression shattered into pure terror.

"No! Melody, please don't—!"

She screamed and threw herself backward, tumbling down the second-floor stairs.

Her body hit each step with sickening thuds. The classical music cut off abruptly downstairs.

Gasps. A woman's cry. Then Reginald's roar.

I walked to the landing and looked down.

Eve lay crumpled on the marble floor, white dress soaked red, the gash on her arm deep enough to show bone. A dark bruise was already spreading across her forehead.

She clutched her bleeding arm, sobbing. "Melody... why? I just wanted to bring you juice..."

Alex reached her first, dropping to his knees and pulling her into his arms. When he saw the blood—the shattered glass—his head snapped up toward me. His eyes locked on my hand. On Eve's blood staining my fingers.

"You psycho!" He bolted up the stairs and grabbed a fistful of my hair, slamming me against the wall.

My skull cracked against the plaster. My vision blurred. I tasted copper.

I made no sound.

Reginald and Helen had been utterly humiliated in front of their guests. The family doctor arrived within minutes to handle the mess.

After forcing smiles and ushering out the shaken admissions officers, Reginald stormed upstairs, face twisted with rage.

"What the hell were you thinking?!" His finger jabbed toward my face, hand shaking. "We gave you everything—food, a roof, brought you back from that godforsaken place—and this is how you repay us?"

Downstairs, Helen pressed a blood-soaked towel to Eve's arm, voice breaking. "Reginald, send her back! Right now! I can't have this—this dangerous thing in my house anymore!"

"I didn't hurt her." I stated it simply, a fact.

"Liar! Then where did that blood come from?!" Alex's palm cracked across my face.

My head jerked to the side. More blood in my mouth.

"I haven't been instructed to explain further," I said, turning back to face them. "I'm not authorized to defend myself."

"Shut up with that robot bullshit!" Alex was shaking now, furious and unnerved.

Reginald shoved him aside and closed the distance between us. His chest heaved. Veins stood out on his temples.

"I actually believed you'd changed." His voice cracked with something like betrayal. "That perfect act at school, playing obedient—you were just setting us up, weren't you? Waiting for the perfect moment to destroy Eve's future in front of those officers!"

"I wasn't pretending," I said.

"Eden didn't fix anything!" Reginald's control snapped completely. "You're broken. Fundamentally broken. A defect that can't be repaired. All you do is hurt Eve—hurt this family!"

"As long as she's here, we'll never have peace!" Helen's voice cracked from downstairs.

Something in Reginald's face went dark. He stepped closer, so close I could see the fury and disgust burning in his eyes.

"You're poison," he said, voice dropping to something low and venomous. "Your mother knew it. This family knew it. You've been a curse from the beginning."

His hands clenched into fists at his sides.

"If Eden couldn't fix you, then why are you still here? Why don't you just—"

He stopped himself. But only barely.

Then the words ripped out of him anyway, raw and unfiltered:

"Why don't you just disappear? Just—die. If you were gone, this family could finally be clean again. So why don't you do us all a favor and fucking die already!"

Silence crashed down over the house.

Alex froze. Downstairs, Helen's crying stopped. Even they seemed startled by the venom in his voice, the nakedness of it.

But I understood.

At Eden, commands were absolute. Orders were survival. Though I no longer needed to survive.

"Understood."

I looked at Reginald. And for the first time in weeks, my mouth moved into something that might have been a smile. Stiff. Cold. Empty.

Reginald's expression faltered. Like he suddenly wasn't sure what he'd just said.

I turned and walked toward the second-floor railing. Below, the marble floor gleamed under the chandelier light.

"Wait—what are you doing?" Alex's voice pitched upward, uncertain now.

I didn't answer.

I placed both hands on the railing and vaulted over it.