Chapter 1 - THE WOMAN WITH THE WATER
The first thing my grandmother ever gave me was a glass of water thrown in my face.
The second was a reason to stay alive.
I was nine that night, hungry enough to feel sick, standing beneath the chandeliers of the Waldorf with rainwater leaking out of my shoes.
Around me, people ate food that looked too pretty to touch.
I was looking for my mother.
An older woman in a silver dress stepped into my path.
“How did this filthy child get inside?”
I knew her name because my mother had whispered it that morning while studying a newspaper.
Evelyn Whitmore.
“I’m looking for my mom.”
A waiter started toward me.
Evelyn raised one hand to stop him.
“Children like you come here to steal.”
“I’m not—”
The water struck my face before I finished.
Someone gasped.
I stumbled backward, caught my heel beneath my coat, and hit the marble hard enough to knock the air from my chest.
My necklace slipped over my head.
It spun between Evelyn’s shoes.
Gold chain.
Teardrop stone.
The strange blue ruby my mother always kept beneath her clothes.
Evelyn stopped breathing.
Then she bent down so quickly that her pearls struck her chin.
“Where did you get this?”
“My mother.”
“This disappeared twenty years ago.”
She grabbed my shoulder.
“Who is your mother?”
“Sarah.”
Her fingers loosened.
Behind the gemstone was a tiny locket.
She opened it with her thumbnail.
Inside was a photograph of a younger Evelyn holding a newborn baby.
“Mom said it belonged to my grandmother.”
Evelyn looked at my eyes.
Then at the birthmark beneath my ear.
The necklace fell from her hand.
“Oh, God.”
She dropped to her knees.
“You’re Sarah’s daughter.”
Her arms closed around me, and for one stupid second, I forgot she was the person who had hurt me.
“My granddaughter,” she whispered.
“I’ve been searching for you.”
I didn’t hug her back.
“Then why did you throw water at me?”
Her arms went slack.
Nobody around us moved.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
But I wasn’t thinking about the water anymore.
“My mom came here to find you.”
Evelyn pulled back.
“When?”
“Before dinner.”
A tall man in a dark suit appeared behind her.
“Evelyn, let me handle this.”
At the sound of his voice, my stomach tightened.
He was the man I had seen gripping my mother’s elbow outside the hotel.
May you like
I pointed at him.
“He already did.”
