Chapter 4

TAMSIN

That afternoon, I caught a rideshare to Linwood High for the interview.

The scheduled time came and went. My parents never showed.

I called them, panic climbing up my throat. "Mom, Dad, the interview's starting. Are you almost here?"

Dad picked up. "Tam, we can't make it right now. We're picking out a puppy for Delphine. She's been waiting forever for this."

"But—"

My throat closed up.

"Daddy! Get off the phone! Come look at this golden retriever—isn't he the cutest?"

The line went dead.

I stood at the school gates gripping my phone, feeling like someone had punched a hole straight through my chest.

Mr. Abernathy, my old homeroom teacher, kept glancing over at me with worried eyes.

I set my jaw and told Investigator Dunmore the truth. All of it.

He was quiet for a moment. Then he pulled an envelope from his folder—a letter of recommendation. The signature at the bottom belonged to Professor Kerrigan.

"Your professor explained your situation to us ahead of time. Your former teacher can provide the remaining character reference. There's nothing for you to worry about."

I stared at that thin envelope.

My eyes stung, and the tears spilled over before I could stop them.

Mr. Abernathy rested a hand on my shoulder. "You're a good kid, Tamsin. Go where you're meant to go."

I went home feeling lighter than I had in years.

Then I opened the front door, and everything froze.

My suitcase had been flipped upside down on the floor, unzipped, my clothes dumped everywhere.

My offer letter from Halvane was under Delphine's shoe.

She was directing two movers as they emptied out my room.

I stared at her. "Get your foot off that."

Delphine shrugged and twisted her heel, grinding it in.

"This is my puppy's room now."

The movers had stopped working. They looked like they wanted to be anywhere else.

Right then, my parents walked in carrying a fluffy new golden retriever.

I looked at them, my voice shaking. "Why?"

Mom said it like she was reading off a grocery list. "You're leaving for that job anyway. The room would just sit empty. Why not let the puppy have it? It's perfectly reasonable."

Reasonable.

So that was where I ranked. Below a dog they'd owned for an hour.

Dad set the puppy down and nodded toward the back porch. "You'll only be here a few more days. Clear out some space back there. You'll manage."

I took a breath, nudged Delphine aside, and picked up my offer letter.

She went off like a firecracker. "She pushed me! Did you see that? She pushed me!"

Dad's face went dark. "What the hell is wrong with you? Apologize to your sister. Now."

My eyes burned as I looked at the three of them.

"I wish I wasn't your daughter."

Mom pressed a hand to her chest like I'd stabbed her. "Why do you always have to be so dramatic?"

"After everything I've sacrificed raising you, this is how you treat your own mother?"

Dad rubbed her back. "Tamsin. Apologize to your mother."

"Yeah, look what you did to Mom!"

Delphine grabbed a mug off the side table and smashed it on the floor.

The crash terrified the puppy. He scrambled in a panic and raked his claws down my thigh.

I bit back a gasp. I didn't make a sound.

I bent down and smoothed out the offer letter. Every crease in that paper looked like one of the years I'd spent swallowing all of this.

Without another word, I turned and walked out.

Mom's voice chased me all the way down the driveway.

I took a cab to urgent care and got the scratches cleaned and bandaged.

Then I went to the county records office with my birth certificate and Social Security card—the ones I'd quietly taken from the fireproof box in Mom's closet two days earlier.

I changed my legal address to Halvane's. I updated my state ID. I removed both of my parents as my emergency contacts and next of kin.

The clerk slid a new card across the counter. I stared at it for a long time.

My name. An address that wasn't theirs.

From now on, I would never have to bend around Delphine again. I would never have to beg for a kind of love that was never coming.

In the departure lounge, my phone buzzed. A text from Delphine.

Once you leave, don't bother coming back.

I typed one word.

Fine.

The plane climbed. I watched the city I grew up in shrink to nothing beneath the clouds.

The weight I'd carried for more than a decade simply... lifted.

I felt as light as the wind.