Chapter 3

At the birthday party, Dale fastened a necklace around my neck.

A white crane holding a crescent moon.

He hooked the clasp from behind and kissed my earlobe.

"Happy eighteenth, Mrs. Stephens."

The whole room broke into whoops at once.

"Dale's locking her down already?"

"Sadie chased you for over ten years. Guess it finally paid off."

Dale pulled me into his arms, grinning lazily.

"She didn't have to chase."

"She's been mine since we were kids."

Antonia's face went white by degrees.

She pulled up a chat log.

【Once you get into Kingsford, the crane-and-moon is yours.】

The sender was Dale.

Dated two months ago.

"Dale, wasn't this supposed to be mine?"

The room went silent in an instant.

Dale caught my hand as I reached to take the necklace off.

"It suits Sadie better."

"Why?"

"Because she's my girlfriend."

He answered it without a flinch.

"You want something else, I'll buy it for you."

Antonia ran out, eyes red.

He went after her anyway.

Five minutes later, Dale called me into the fire stairwell.

He pinned me to the wall and bent down to kiss me.

Soft, lingering.

Only when my breathing had gone ragged did he cup the back of my neck and unhook the clasp.

"Antonia's in a bad way. Let her wear it for one night."

I pressed his hand still.

"It's my birthday present."

"I'll buy you something better later."

He kissed the wet at the corner of my eye.

"I've given you the wife's place. Don't fight her over a little thing like this."

The crane and moon left my throat.

By the time we came back to the room, it was already sitting against Antonia's collarbone.

She apologized to me, eyes red: "Dale said you two will have everything someday."

"I only get this once."

There was mango in the slice of cake they'd given me.

Antonia was the one who noticed my allergy first, and yet Dale frowned and scolded me for not taking care of myself.

He remembered every food Antonia couldn't touch.

When it came to me, all that was left was cleanup after the fact.

After the meal, Antonia took out the innovation-contest entry form.

"Dale, my model's still short a few pages of extreme-rainfall records."

Dale looked at me.

"You brought your mom's manual, didn't you?"

"How do you know that?"

"Didn't you book a scan for tomorrow?"

His tone was offhand.

"Over summer break, while you were at the hospital with your grandmother, I photographed most of the book."

"Antonia's only missing a few pages that glare too much to read."

My head snapped up.

"Who said you could touch my things?"

"They're just a few photos. Is it really that serious?"

So even before he tampered with my applications, he'd already gotten used to going through my mother's things, then handing what was mine to Antonia.

"You can't have the manual."

"Antonia spent three months preparing."

"That's her problem."

Antonia lowered her eyes.

"Never mind. I won't enter."

Dale's face darkened. He yanked my backpack open and shoved the manual into her project bag.

"I'll give it back once I've finished photographing the rest."

I grabbed the strap.

"Give it back to me!"

Dale locked his hand around my wrist.

"Sadie. That's enough."

I stopped fighting and picked up my phone off the table.

"Did the two of you forget? There are still two lines you never wiped clean."

I opened the voice message I'd saved the night before.

"The verification code came through."

Right after it, Antonia's voice.

"Five minutes left. Delete it, quick."

The room fell dead silent.

The impatience on Dale's face finally cracked open.