Chapter 3

My legs nearly gave out beneath me.

Was this really Ethan?

Vanessa reacted like lightning, quickly pulling a wrapped gift from the bag on her arm. “Maddie, I picked this out especially for you. I know what happened back then hurt you badly, but I… I really was forced into it.”

As she spoke, those carefully lined eyes actually began to redden, as if the weight of some great wrong were pressing down on her alone.

The gift was a necklace — Tiffany’s latest, retailing for over four thousand dollars on the site.

That wasn’t a gift for me. That was Ethan’s money, bought so she could shove it in my mother’s face, and now conveniently repurposed to shove down my throat.

I didn’t say a word. I walked straight up, picked up the untouched glass of water on the coffee table, and poured it right over her head.