The night I died in the basement, my skin was falling off in sheets. My husband was upstairs in bed with the woman who put me there. In my last life, the orphan my husband took in gave me a necklace. After I put it on, I couldn’t stay awake. My body broke down in ways no doctor could explain, and by the end I was rotting from the inside out. I didn’t learn the truth until after I died. She was a corporate spy planted by a rival conglomerate. After her side lost, she used her face and her body to get Julian to bring her home. Once she was inside the estate, she used that necklace to destroy me. The pendant contained a trace amount of radium, enough to poison anyone who wore it against their skin day after day. Slow, invisible, impossible to diagnose until it was too late. Julian spent every night in her bed. He let me die in a locked room in the basement, alone, on a bare mattress that smelled like bleach and mold. After I was gone, they rolled me into a body bag and dumped me at a county crematorium. No service. No marker. Nothing. The only person who came for me was Seth, a housekeeper from Beatrice Sterling’s household. He pulled strings to get my remains out of that crematorium and buried me himself. All because I’d smiled at him once at a company gala. That was all it took. When I opened my eyes again, I was back at the moment she handed me the necklace. She wanted what I had. I’d make sure she got it. —– “Julian really pulled it off. The board’s going to hand him the CEO seat after this.” “A full acquisition in three months. The Thornes don’t play around.” Guests raised their glasses and turned toward the head of the table where Julian sat beside me. Crystal and candlelight everywhere. The grand hall of the Thorne Estate packed with every name that mattered. Seraphina didn’t have a title or a ring, but she moved through the room like she already owned it. She walked over to me with a glass of champagne in one hand and a small velvet box in the other, all grace, all warmth. “I know how much you worried while Julian was away. I went to St. Catherine’s and had this blessed for you. For good luck.” She opened the box. A simple chain with a small pendant, nothing flashy. The last time, I was so happy Julian had come home victorious, so touched by her gesture, that I let her clasp it around my neck right there at the table. I had no idea what it really was. The pendant was laced with radium. Sealed under a thin coating that wore away with daily use, leaching radiation into the skin at the back of my neck. A little every day. Not enough to set off alarms. Just enough to kill, slowly. First came the fatigue. Then the aches I couldn’t explain. Then the sores. And Seraphina? She glowed brighter every day. The sicker I looked, the more radiant she appeared, and the more Julian turned to her. By the time I woke up from a week-long haze, my body was falling apart. Open sores, the smell of decay. Seraphina stood at the foot of my bed, fanned her nose, and draped herself over Julian like a silk scarf. “Oh my. She looks awful. What happened to her?” Julian’s face went cold. “Get this woman out of my sight. Lock her downstairs. Anyone who brings her food or water gets fired on the spot.” I tried to speak. My mouth opened and nothing came out. All I could do was watch him walk away. Up until the moment I choked on my own breath in that basement, I never understood how the man who once loved me could turn into that. It wasn’t until my mind was floating above my own corpse that I pieced it together. She’d been a spy all along. Embedded by a rival firm, using her looks to hook Julian and using that necklace to put me in the ground. She didn’t need to be sick herself. She just needed me to wear it. I wanted to scream. I wanted to tear her apart. But I was nothing. Just a thought with no hands. The clink of glasses brought me back. I was standing in the grand hall again. The gala. The same faces, the same laughter, the same chandelier light bouncing off Julian’s cufflinks. Seraphina’s eyes flashed with something sharp and hungry, and then she smiled, soft as cashmere, and held the necklace out to me. “Here, let me put it on for you.”
I stepped aside before she could reach me. She froze. Then the tears came, instant and perfect. “You don’t want it?” “I spent weeks going to St. Catherine’s for this. I prayed for you and Julian every single day.” “I get it though. I’m just the girl Julian took in off the street. Why would you want anything from me.” The women at the table were already whispering. “Wow. She goes to all that effort and can’t even get a thank you.” “That poor girl has nothing and she’s still thinking about everyone else. Honestly, it’s a little embarrassing for the actual wife.” I forced a smile and said I loved the thought, and I’d absolutely keep the necklace. But I was already wearing one tonight and it would look odd to switch mid-dinner. Seraphina wiped her eyes and looked at me like a kicked puppy. “I know mine’s nothing compared to yours. But I knelt on that chapel floor so long my knees were raw.” “Just try it on? For me? I promise it’ll look so pretty.” She wasn’t going to let this go. Right then, a young man stepped into the hall and approached Julian with a polite nod. “Mr. Thorne, sorry to interrupt. Mrs. Sterling asked me to come get Mrs. Thorne. She’s expecting her for tea.” My heart slammed against my ribs. Seth. The one who pulled my remains from a county crematorium and buried me with his own hands. He glanced at me, just for a second. Something careful in his eyes. I was about to use this as my exit when Seraphina latched onto my arm. “Oh, put the necklace on before you go. You don’t want to show up at Mrs. Sterling’s wearing something nicer than hers, do you?” She was already reaching for my neck with the chain. Seth spoke up. “Hang on. I feel like I’ve seen you before. Were you at the Harrington Group event last fall? I swear you were with their team.” Seraphina went still. Then she laughed, light and easy. “Oh no, you’ve got the wrong person. Julian rescued me. I don’t exactly run in those circles.” Seth let it go. I jumped in. “Mrs. Sterling’s waiting, I shouldn’t keep her. Seraphina, I’ll wear it tonight, I promise. It’s not going anywhere.” I turned to leave and Seraphina grabbed my wrist. “It takes two seconds. Why are you making this so hard? Unless you’re just trying to get away from me.” Then she stumbled sideways and crashed right into Seth. “Get off me! He just grabbed me!” She clutched her side and the tears poured down. The women at the table went off. “Did he seriously just put his hands on her?” “God, that’s vile. Someone get him out of here.” Seraphina was shaking, tears streaming, the whole performance pitch-perfect. “I don’t care where I come from, no one gets to touch me like that. I swear to God I’ll call the police.” She lurched toward the edge of the marble bar counter and Julian was on his feet in a second, pulling her into his chest. Seth backed up with both hands raised, palms out. “I didn’t touch her. She stumbled into me. My hands were up the whole time. I never made contact.” Seraphina buried her face in Julian’s shirt and sobbed louder. Julian’s jaw was locked. “Get him out. Now. Call security.” I stepped forward. “Julian, Beatrice Sterling sent him. This is going to get back to her.” He didn’t even look at me. Seraphina lifted her head from Julian’s chest, eyes red and wet. “Why are you taking his side? Unless you liked it when he touched you. Is that what this is?” Pure poison. She was putting the image in Julian’s head that Seth and I had something going on. Julian looked at me and his eyes went cold. Whatever I’d said about Beatrice didn’t matter anymore. I opened my mouth but Seth cut in, hands still raised. “Mr. Thorne, do whatever you want to me. But Mrs. Sterling is still waiting for an answer. Let me do my job and I’ll be out of your house.” Something inside me cracked. If I said one more word in his defense, it would look exactly the way Seraphina wanted it to look. Seth knew that. He was taking the hit so I wouldn’t have to. I was shaking. My eyes landed on the necklace in Seraphina’s hand and something clicked into place. She wanted to poison me and take my place. Fine. I’d give her a taste of her own medicine. I looked at Seth and wondered what he would choose.
I could hear them downstairs. Muffled voices, something heavy hitting something soft. Last life he carried my body out of a crematorium. This life he was getting beaten for me. What could I do for him? Get him out. Get him free. Give him the life he actually wanted. One of the housekeepers rushed in. “They’re still going at it. Seth passed out and nobody told them to stop.” My chest tightened. “What did Julian say?” “He’s with Seraphina. He hasn’t said anything.” Hasn’t said stop. Which meant they’d keep going until Seth couldn’t get up again. Seraphina wanted him silenced. He’d recognized her face and she couldn’t risk him remembering where from. I turned toward the stairs and Seraphina’s voice hit me from the end of the hallway. She was standing there with two of the older housekeepers flanking her like bodyguards. “If you go down there right now, you’re proving everything I said at dinner.” I almost laughed. “You’re right. Why would I care what happens to the help.” I glanced at the necklace still in her hand. “You still want me to wear that?” Her eyes lit up. She held it out like an offering. “You’ll actually put it on?” I took it from her and sighed. “Tomorrow’s the anniversary of my mother’s death. I’m going to St. Catherine’s to light a candle.” “If you really mean all this, come with me. Put it on me there, in the chapel. In front of God.” Something flickered in her eyes. Suspicion. But it was gone in a second, swallowed by the thrill of winning. She probably thought I was caving to save face after the scene at dinner. “Of course. I’ll go with you tomorrow.” She smiled. The same smile she had in my last life when she got what she wanted. I nodded and turned to walk away. “You’re not going downstairs?” “No.” Seth was already unconscious. Going down there wouldn’t save him. Begging for him would only hand Seraphina exactly what she wanted. But I had another way. Back in my room, I typed out a message and had someone deliver it to Beatrice Sterling’s office. Beatrice might not care about one housekeeper. But she cared about her reputation. Someone roughing up her staff at a party? She’d want a word about that.
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