Chapter 1 - THE NAME TRAVIS WAS AFRAID TO SAY
"Do you have any idea who that belonged to?"
Travis's question hung over the dining room.
Nobody answered.
Blood dripped from my chin onto the hardwood floor.
My father slowly released my wrists.
For the first time that night, he wasn't looking at me with anger.
He was looking at the pendant.
And he looked terrified.
I forced myself onto one elbow.
"What are you talking about?"
My jaw burned with every word.
Travis stared at me.
"That pendant."
Madison stepped between us.
"Who cares about some stupid necklace?"
Travis shoved her hand away when she tried to grab him.
"Don't touch it."
Madison froze.
"You just tackled me over a necklace."
"It's not just a necklace."
My mother's face had turned gray.
Travis noticed.
So did I.
He slowly stood.
"Mrs. Bennett, you recognize it."
Mom said nothing.
"You recognize that pendant."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
Travis laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
"You're lying."
My father stood abruptly.
"Get out of my house."
Travis ignored him.
He looked at me again.
"Emily, where did you get it?"
"My grandmother gave it to me."
"Which grandmother?"
I hesitated.
"Rose."
Travis closed his eyes.
That name seemed to hit him almost as hard as the wrench had hit me.
"Oh, God."
Madison looked between us.
"Would somebody tell me what the hell is happening?"
Travis crouched beside the pendant.
He used the edge of a dinner napkin to lift it carefully from the blood.
Then he turned it over.
On the back was the tiny engraving I had seen thousands of times.
Three letters.
E.V.H.
I had never known what they meant.
Travis did.
His voice dropped.
"Eleanor Victoria Hale."
My mother knocked over her wineglass.
Red wine spilled across the white tablecloth.
Nobody moved to clean it.
I stared at Travis.
"Who is Eleanor Hale?"
He looked at me.
"One of the richest women in this state."
Madison scoffed.
"You're being ridiculous."
Travis shook his head.
"No."
He pointed at the pendant.
"That design was commissioned privately."
"How would you know?"
"My father worked for the Hale family for twenty-seven years."
The room suddenly felt too small.
Travis continued.
"Eleanor Hale had two identical jade pendants made."
"One for herself."
"And one for her only daughter."
I looked down at the pendant.
My heart began beating harder.
"What happened to her daughter?"
Travis didn't answer immediately.
My mother did.
"She died."
Every head turned toward her.
Her voice had come out too quickly.
Too confidently.
Travis stared at her.
"That's interesting."
Mom swallowed.
"Why?"
"Because I never said she was dead."
My mother's lips parted.
Nothing came out.
Travis stepped toward her.
"The Hale daughter disappeared twenty-eight years ago."
My father moved between them.
"That's enough."
Travis looked over his shoulder at me.
"And according to my father, she disappeared with a newborn baby."
My stomach dropped.
Mom backed away from the table.
Madison stared at her.
"Mom?"
"He's making this up."
Travis shook his head.
"The baby was never found."
My fingers touched my bloody cheek.
I suddenly remembered something.
Grandma Rose.
Her trembling hands fastening the pendant around my neck when I was twelve.
Never let your mother take this from you.
I had laughed.
I'd thought she was being dramatic.
Now I remembered the second thing she'd said.
Someday, somebody may recognize it.
I looked at my mother.
She couldn't meet my eyes.
"Mom."
Nothing.
"Who was my biological mother?"
Madison laughed nervously.
"Biological mother?"
I looked at her.
"Why did Grandma Rose tell me never to let Mom take this pendant?"
Mom's eyes flashed.
"Because she was senile."
"She wasn't."
"Emily, stop."
"No."
My voice was weak.
But for once, I didn't care.
"No more stopping."
I pointed toward the blood on the floor.
"You hit me in the face with a wrench."
My father moved toward me.
Travis stepped between us.
"Don't."
Dad stopped.
Travis pulled out his phone.
"I'm calling an ambulance."
My father lunged for it.
Travis shoved him backward.
"Touch me and I'll call the police too."
"Travis!" Madison screamed.
He stared at her.
"What?"
Her face twisted.
"You came here with me."
"I came here because you told me your family was normal."
Madison looked almost offended.
Travis stared at the blood on my dress.
"Your mother hit your sister with a wrench."
Then he pointed toward Dad.
"Your father held her down."
His eyes shifted toward Madison.
"And you were about to hit her again."
Madison's expression hardened.
"She deserved it."
Travis stared at her for several seconds.
Whatever feelings he had for my sister died in those seconds.
I could see it happen.
Then Mom suddenly ran.
Not toward me.
Not toward the door.
Toward the hallway.
Dad's head snapped around.
"Linda!"
Mom disappeared around the corner.
I heard a drawer slam open.
Then another.
Travis looked at me.
"What is she doing?"
I knew.
Or at least some part of me did.
"The study."
Dad immediately moved toward the hallway.
Travis blocked him.
I pushed myself up.
The room spun.
"There's a safe in Dad's study."
Madison stared at me.
"So?"
I remembered Grandma Rose again.
Something she'd told me three weeks before she died.
If you ever need the truth, look where your father keeps what he values most.
I'd assumed she meant money.
Now I wasn't so sure.
I stumbled toward the hallway.
"Emily, wait."
I kept moving.
My mother appeared at the far end.
She was holding a thick brown envelope.
And a silver lighter.
My stomach turned.
"Mom."
She looked at me.
For the first time in my life, I saw desperation in her eyes.
She flicked the lighter.
A flame appeared.
Travis shouted.
"Don't!"
Mom held the flame beneath the envelope.
May you like
And my father whispered the words that changed everything.
"Burn the adoption papers."
