Chapter 1

My family killed me.

On the one-year anniversary of my return home, they murdered me in the old barn.

My brother Jakob, who always protected me, screamed I was a "defiler." He attacked me with a fury I'd never seen.

My father, a man of God, dragged me across the dirt floor. He used a rusty handsaw to cut off my hand. He shouted in Pennsylvania Dutch that the curse had to be severed.

My mother, who had cried with joy when I came back, called me an "abomination." Her eyes were filled with pure terror.

They threw my bleeding body into the grain silo and sealed the hatch. As the air thinned and my vision faded, I had only one question.

Why?

It was the locket. It had to be the locket.

My younger sister, Esther, had given it to me just moments before. A "welcome home" gift, she said. A family heirloom. A small, hand-carved wooden locket.

I put it on, and my loving family turned into monsters.

I didn't understand. I still don't.

But now, I have a second chance.

I'm awake. The sun is streaming through my bedroom window. The air smells of fresh bread and manure, the familiar scent of our farm.

I look at the calendar on the wall. It' s the anniversary of my return.

Today is the day they will kill me.

Today is the day I will find out why.

Downstairs, I hear my mother humming a hymn. I hear my father's heavy boots on the porch.

I hear Esther's light footsteps coming up the stairs.

She is coming to give me the locket.