Chapter 2

My mind raced, scrambling for any hope, any miracle. I remembered the car crash, years ago. Andrew had been mangled, the doctors giving him no chance. I had sat by his bed, just like this, and brewed the remedy.

A family secret, passed down through generations of women in my Appalachian home. It required a painful sacrifice, a piece of one' s own life force, given willingly. I had made three vials for him. He only used two before he made a full, shocking recovery.

He never believed it was the remedy. He credited the doctors, his own strength. He called it my "folk nonsense."

But there was one vial left.

I had to get it. It was my only hope.

I left Gabrielle's room, telling the nurse I'd be back. I drove through the D.C. streets, the city lights blurring through my tears. I didn't go to our sterile, cold townhouse. I went to another address, one I knew all too well. Jennifer' s house.

I could hear the party from the street. Laughter and music spilled from the open windows. I walked up the stone path and looked through the large bay window.

There he was. Andrew. He was holding a cake, a bright smile on his face. Jennifer stood beside him, her arm around his waist. And in front of them, blowing out the candles, was Molly. It was her birthday.

My daughter was dying, and he was celebrating.

I slipped around to the back, to the patio doors I knew he often left unlocked. The voices grew clearer as I stepped into the shadows of the porch.

"Did you handle it?" Jennifer' s voice was sharp, cutting through the music.

"Of course," Andrew said. "I told Maria to renounce Gabrielle's position. Molly will be the President' s new goddaughter by the end of the week."

"And the rumor?"

"Spreading like wildfire," Andrew boasted. "By tomorrow, everyone in D.C. will think Gabrielle was an unlucky, reckless girl who got what was coming to her. No one will connect this to us."

Molly giggled, a cruel, high-pitched sound. "I wonder what she looked like. All bloody and gross."

"Don't be macabre, sweetie," Jennifer chided, but she was smiling. "Your father did this for you. So you could have everything you deserve."

Andrew leaned in and kissed Jennifer. "I only married that hillbilly to get close to the Senator. He was obsessed with her 'blessed' act. It was all a means to an end. You and Molly were always the real family."

The world tilted. The air left my lungs. The casual cruelty of his words was a physical blow. He had built his entire life on my back, using me, despising me, while my daughter... my daughter was just collateral damage in his ambition.

I couldn't stay hidden any longer. I slid the patio door open and stepped into the light.

The music stopped. The laughter died. Three faces turned to me, their smiles frozen in place.