Chapter 1

Where I come from, in Charleston, the year you turn fifteen you hold your coming-of-age celebration.

It's supposed to be one of the biggest days of your life. But on the day of mine,

my brother set a beheaded rooster down on the plate in front of me.

The whole room went dead silent, because the most important part of the ceremony is when the one coming of age bites the rooster's head, a wish that they'll rise above the crowd someday.

Instead, because I hadn't stepped aside for our adopted sister and had gone and scored first on my own, he served me that headless bird in front of everyone.

"Lucille Pruitt, you're too jealous, too selfish to give way. You don't deserve to bite this head."

He looked at me, cold.

"Consider this a small lesson. From now on, you'd better remember never to take what belongs to Marina."

There was a smug look on his face. He thought he'd ruined the most important day of my life, and he was waiting for me to burst into tears, to throw a scene and lose every shred of face.

But I just sat there, silent.

That was when the family elder set down his chopsticks and turned to my father.

"Michael Pruitt. Is this how you raise your children? For the sake of an outsider, he'd throw away his own flesh-and-blood sister without a second thought."

"How is a man like that ever supposed to inherit the family business?"

One sentence, and my brother's face went bloodless.

His fiancée called off the engagement over it, and my father revoked his rights to run the subsidiary.

Henry Pruitt finally broke. "Why?! Because I put a headless rooster on her plate at her coming-of-age?"

I looked at this man who, even now, had no idea what he'd done wrong, and let out a small laugh.

"Yes. Because of that."

...

After the banquet cleared out, once Henry understood everything that had happened, his face was full of resentment.

For twenty-five years he'd walked on eggshells, working himself to the bone to perform for our father, and only then had he earned the right to run the subsidiary.

In one afternoon it was all stripped away, and the marriage alliance they'd arranged fell through along with it.

"Dad, all I did was say a few words for Marina. Is this really necessary?!"

My father looked at him like a lost cause.

"Just a few words for Marina Harding? Do you know what today was? It was your sister's coming-of-age celebration!"

"Do you have any idea how many important guests came today, and you served her a headless rooster!"

Henry's face went through every shade of green and white under the tongue-lashing, and behind him Marina had gone pale too.

As if she'd finally grasped how much trouble she'd caused, Marina suddenly dropped to her knees, hard.

"Dad, please don't blame Henry. It's all my fault. If it weren't for me, he never would have done something so foolish..."

"How is any of this your fault!" Seeing her cry like a wilting flower, Henry cut in at once. "It's clearly Lucille's fault. If she hadn't stolen your first place, none of this would have happened!"

That line seemed to enrage our father. He snatched up the cane lying nearby and moved to strike him.

"You worthless child, you still have the nerve to say that!"

The cane went up high, but before it could come down on Henry, my mother, who'd heard the commotion, came crying and threw herself in front of him.

"If you're going to hit anyone, kill me first!"

She planted herself in front of my father, ignoring his iron-dark face.

"My son was only joking. What gives anyone the right to treat him like this! If you want to blame someone, blame Lucille, that jinx. If she hadn't done something wrong, why would my son ever go after her!"

She glared at me with a face like a demon, as if I were her mortal enemy.

I'd heard accusations like this more times than I could count. And yet, coming out of my mother's mouth again,

it still sent a dull ache through my heart. Seeing me stay silent, she seemed to find her outlet. "Why aren't you saying anything?"

"Lucille, did you set your brother up on purpose? Apologize to him, now!"