Chapter 2
The needle pierced the skin above my eyebrow, a sharp, stinging bite that grounded me. I sat on the edge of the master bed, my hands folded demurely in my lap, staring at the silk rug. The room smelled of antiseptic and the cloying, lingering scent of Lila’s perfume.
"Almost done, Mrs. Kelly," Dr. Chen murmured, her voice professional but laced with a pity that made my stomach turn. She tied off the suture with a deft snap of her wrist. "It’s a clean cut. You’re lucky you didn’t fracture your skull on that planter."
I listened to the silence of the house. Hudson had left hours ago, taking Lila to 'calm her nerves' after my fall. We were alone.
I lifted my head. I didn't blink. I didn't let my gaze drift aimlessly to the corner of the room as I had for two years. I locked eyes with Dr. Chen, letting the fog in my expression evaporate instantly.
"He didn't take me to the hospital because he didn't want questions about the bruising on my arm," I said. My voice was raspy from disuse, but the words were crystal clear. American English, fluent and sharp.
Dr. Chen dropped her forceps. They clattered onto the metal tray, the sound like a gunshot in the quiet room. She took a stumbling step back, her hand flying to her throat. "Everleigh? You... you’re lucid?"
"I’ve been lucid for weeks," I whispered, leaning forward. The movement made my head throb, but I ignored it. "Please. You can’t tell him."
" Mrs. Kelly, this is a medical miracle. Hudson needs to know—"
"If Hudson knows," I cut her off, the steel in my tone freezing her, "he will lock me away in a facility where I can’t talk. Or worse." I gestured to the fresh stitches on my forehead. "Do you think this was an accident?"
Dr. Chen looked at the wound, then back at my eyes. The professional mask crumbled, revealing the horrified woman beneath. She saw the truth I was projecting: I was a prisoner in a gilded cage.
"I... I won't list the cognitive improvement in the official report," she said slowly, her hands trembling as she packed her bag. "But Everleigh, you cannot hide this forever. The brain isn't a switch you can flip. You will slip up."
"I just need a little more time," I promised.
But time was a luxury Lila Hunt had no intention of granting me.
Two days later, the air in the estate garden was heavy with humidity. I had retreated to the hydrangeas, feigning a childlike fascination with the blooms while I mentally cataloged the security camera blind spots.
I didn't hear them approach until the gravel crunched heavily behind me.
"There she is. The simpleton."
I spun around. Two men, rough-looking and out of place in their cheap suits, blocked the path. One held a camera with a massive telephoto lens.
"Mrs. Kelly," the larger one sneered, stepping into my personal space. The smell of stale tobacco rolled off him. "Let's see a smile. Or maybe something more?"
He lunged, his hand grabbing the strap of my sundress. The fabric tore with a sickening rip, exposing my shoulder. The camera shutter clicked rapidly—*snap, snap, snap*—capturing my terror, the torn dress, the implication of indecency. They were going to frame me. *The mentally unstable wife, stripping in the garden.*
Panic flared, hot and white, but beneath it lay the cold calculation of the new Everleigh. As the man reached for me again, I didn't cower. My hand closed around the handle of a heavy iron garden trowel I’d left in the planter.
I swung it with all the force of my repressed rage.
The metal edge connected with his knuckles. He howled, recoiling and clutching his hand.
"You bitch!" he screamed.
I didn't wait. I bolted through the hedge maze, my lungs burning, the torn dress flapping against my skin. I didn't stop until I crashed into the servant's quarters, collapsing into Loretta’s arms, shaking so hard my teeth rattled. I couldn't tell her the truth—not yet—but I let her rock me, the only safe harbor in a storm that was rapidly becoming a hurricane.
When I finally returned to my room that evening, the shadows were long and stretching. I felt brittle, like glass ready to shatter. I opened the door and froze.
Hudson was there.
He was standing by the antique writing desk, his back to me. The drawers were pulled open. He was looking for his grandfather's watch, a piece he only wore for board meetings. But he wasn't holding the watch.
In his hands was my sketchbook.
My heart hammered a frantic rhythm against my ribs. I had hidden it under the false bottom of the drawer, beneath layers of old stationery. He must have knocked the panel loose.
Hudson turned slowly. The leather book was open to a page I had filled just yesterday: a detailed architectural rendering of the estate’s west wing, complete with load-bearing calculations and notes on structural fatigue. The lines were precise, professional—impossible for a woman with the mind of a six-year-old.
He looked at the drawing. Then he looked at me.
I stood in the doorway, the "simple" mask slipping because there was no point anymore. The evidence was in his hands. I braced myself for confusion, for the shock Dr. Chen had shown. I expected him to ask *how*.
But Hudson didn't look confused.
His eyes darkened, the pupils blowing wide, swallowing the iris. His jaw clenched, a muscle feathering violently in his cheek. He didn't smile. There was no relief that the wife he supposedly mourned had returned.
Instead, he looked at me the way he looked at his real estate acquisitions: with a terrifying, suffocating hunger.
"You're back," he said. It wasn't a question. It was an accusation.
He took a step toward me, closing the sketchbook with a snap that echoed like a prison door slamming shut. The possessive heat radiating off him hit me from across the room. He didn't want his wife back; he wanted his property secured.
"How long, Everleigh?" he asked, his voice low and dangerous. "How long have you been watching me?"
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