Chapter 2

2: 2

I stood flat against the wall, careful even with my breathing.

Darlene Malone's coy complaint carried down the hall.

“You're awful, coming this late. I was about to die of boredom in there.”

Horace laughed. “You're the one who wanted a thrill. Well? Was it worth it?”

Darlene pouted. “How could I have any fun without you here?”

In my last life, I'd gotten up for water in the middle of the night and seen the light on in the study.

When I got closer, I heard them flirting.

My mind went blank. I pushed the door open, and there they were, Darlene and Horace, naked and tangled together.

I fell apart, lunging at them, clawing and demanding answers. Horace kept saying he wanted to “explain,” and all the while he was steering me toward the window.

Then he spun around behind me and shoved me off the building.

Afterward, Horace paid off some corrupt doctor to fake a diagnosis of severe depression, and claimed I'd killed myself over it.

My fists clenched so hard the memory of my bones breaking woke again, and I couldn't stop the shaking that ran through me.

Their voices drifted back.

“You know how to have fun, at least. That woman Lucy is like a block of wood. Ask her to go along with anything and she acts like it's beneath her.”

“If I weren't reluctant to lose her money, I'd have dumped her ages ago.”

“If it's really about the money, why don't you just drug her? Aren't there those overseas ones they can't trace?”

“I've been dosing her for half a damn year. That dead weight hasn't reacted at all. Probably got sold a fake.”

“And I saw on the news they can detect that stuff now too, so I don't dare keep at it.”

Horace had been drugging me for half a year?

My head snapped around, and I saw the supplements sitting on the coffee table.

Horace had said he'd had them custom-made for me from overseas, that they were good for my skin.

But I've always distrusted supplements, sure they'd wreck my body, so I never took them.

I only pretended to drink them every day so Horace wouldn't be disappointed.

So that had been the poison he'd prepared for me all along.

Darlene's voice came again, sulking.

“So when do I get to be the real thing?”

“I'm telling you, I don't have the patience to wait. Plenty of men would marry me.”

Horace gave a nasty little chuckle. “Relax. I've got a doctor lined up who'll write Lucy a depression diagnosis. I'm going to see him tomorrow.”

“So what?”

“So what? Look at the windows in this place. The sills don't even reach your knee.”

“If you were standing by the window and I gave you a push from behind, what do you think would happen?”

The air went quiet for a beat, then came their smug laughter.

Every hair on my body stood up.

So it wasn't because I'd caught them together last life that he pushed me off the building.

He'd already meant to push me off.

I'd just walked in on them by chance and caught him off guard, before he'd even gotten the diagnosis in order.

I went back to bed, eyes shut, my mind turning it over and over.

After a long while Horace crept back in, saw me still asleep, and gave a contemptuous little snort.