Chapter 2

The words hit me like lightning, and something twisted hard behind my ribs.

That year, on stage, I'd gone dizzy for no reason and fallen, wrecking my leg.

I didn't just lose the solo. For months afterward I couldn't perform at all.

All this time I'd blamed myself, thought I'd trained too hard, that my body had given out.

So it turned out they had arranged all of it.

Because they were afraid I'd take Madison's solo away from her.

So all that tender care Herbert lavished on me back then was only guilt too?

Herbert, furious and humiliated, yanked me back to reality.

"How can you slander me like this?"

"I told you a long time ago your dress was chewed up by mice!"

"Can you stop blaming everyone else for your own failures?"

Mice?

Watching his face twist with fury, I was struck by how absurd it all was.

Acting this cheap, and I hadn't seen through it for all these years.

For Madison, they had destroyed with their own hands the life I'd fought eighteen years to build.

And now they were saying I was the one slandering them?

A cramp seized my stomach, like countless needles driven in at once.

I clutched my belly, bent over from the pain.

Gritting through it, I grabbed the pillow beside me and hurled it at him out of spite.

Right then Madison pushed the door open, trophy in her arms.

The pillow flew straight at her.

She shrieked in fright, her hand slipped, and the trophy dropped onto her leg.

Herbert lunged over and pulled her into his arms, one hand cradling her head.

The pillow struck him.

Then drifted lightly to the floor.

Madison buried her face against his chest, sobbing quietly.

"I knew you were upset that I won the championship, so I brought the trophy to give it to you."

"I'm sorry, sis. I shouldn't have made you angry."

She squeezed out a few pitiful tears and cast a helpless glance at Herbert.

"But my leg really hurts so much…"

At that, Herbert shot me a dark glare.

He crouched down, pushed up her pant leg, and examined her leg carefully.

My throat itched, and a warm, metallic sweetness filled my mouth.

My leg had been torn to bloody pulp, and he never spared it a single look.

But Madison hadn't so much as scraped the skin, and he was frantic.

Only once he saw she wasn't hurt did Herbert relax and stand.

Mom and Dad rushed in, and the moment they took in the scene they laid into me with a torrent of abuse.

"You've got no talent yourself and you still want to ruin your sister. How did I ever give birth to a daughter like you!"

"Your sister came to cheer you up out of pure kindness, and you want to hurt her!"

"How can you be so vicious!"

The words poured out of them, not the slightest attempt to hide how much they despised me.

Herbert turned on me too, his face cold as he scolded.

"Stop making a scene!"

"No matter how angry you are, you don't get to take it out on Madison's leg!"

"She's not like you. She still has to dance!"

I dragged a bitter twist across my lips.

I had treated them as family, and all I'd ever been to them was the stone in Madison's path.

From the time we were small, the moment Madison got so much as a bump, they'd hit me and curse me without asking a single question.

I had finally built a career of my own, a family of my own.

I thought I'd finally gotten free of them.

But now it was all in ruins…

I threw everything I could reach at them, forcing out the words through my crying.

"Get out, all of you. I never want to see any of you again!"

Mom spat at me, then turned and shielded my sister as she left the ward.

Herbert gave me one long look.

"Go cool off on your own."

Then he slammed the door and was gone.