Chapter 2

The fluorescent hum of the hospital corridor drilled into my skull, but it was Eleanor's voice through the cracked door that stopped my heart.

"—she told me, weeks ago. Mira said she'd rather see Lena dead than happy."

My hand froze on the doorframe. I never said that. I never said anything close to that.

Sergeant Alvarez had questioned me for two hours in a windowless room, his pen tapping a slow rhythm against his notepad. No alibi — I'd been in the kitchen alone, refilling water, when Lena's glass was poured. A witness, he kept saying. A witness would help. I had none. I had a dead phone, a bad memory, and twenty years of being the daughter who ruined everything.

Now I pressed my eye to the gap. Eleanor stood beside Thomas, her hand resting on his sleeve, her voice low and steady as scripture. Thomas stared at the floor. He didn't correct her. He didn't say *Eleanor, that's not true.* He just stood there, shoulders curved like a question mark.

Dr. Chen lingered by the nurses' station, chart in hand, watching them. Not watching me. Watching *them*. His pen hadn't moved in a full minute.

"Given her history," Eleanor continued, "and the incident ten years ago—"

"We'll verify everything," Alvarez said.

Thomas finally lifted his head. I waited for him to speak. One word. *No.* That's all it would have taken.

He looked away.

Something cold and hard settled in my chest. Not grief. Not even anger. Something sharper. Eleanor had lied to a police officer. She'd put a word in my mouth that tasted like murder, and my own father let it happen.

I stepped back from the door, my heels silent on the linoleum. I'd been waiting my whole life for this family to see me. They never would. Fine. Let them see a suspect. Let them see a threat.

I pulled out my phone — twelve percent battery — and opened the notes app. Eleanor's words. The exact time. The way Thomas wouldn't look at me. Every detail, written down before it could vanish.

If I wanted to survive this, I couldn't trust anyone in that room.

I turned and walked toward the exit, and I stopped waiting to be saved.