Chapter 1 - The Weight of a SecretDr. Harris’s words hung heavily in the air, echoing against the blood-stained marble tiles of the hallway. Avery didn’t answer. She simply tossed her ruined gloves into a biohazard disposal bin and walked away, needing distance, air, and silence.
Fifty-three days.
That was all she had left. Fifty-three days until her brother’s debt was entirely paid off, until she could walk away from Kane House, hang up her heavy cotton apron, and return to the emergency room where she actually belonged.
She retreated to the mansion’s vast, silent study to clean up the last remnants of the night’s chaos. Shards of glass from a shattered antique display case littered the floor near the mahogany desk. Her knees ached, her back throbbed, and her head pounded with the relentless rhythm of pure exhaustion.
She reached down for one last jagged piece of crystal.
May you like
Just finish the study, she thought.
Then the floor tilted. The walls dissolved. And the darkness took her.
