I was born with a cursed mouth. Whenever I spoke of something bad, it came true. When I was four years old, I dropped a single grain of rice at dinner. My grandmother flew into a rage, yanked me by the arm, and dragged me toward the old outhouse behind the house.

Chapter 4

The ceiling gave way.

Chunks of concrete and plaster crashed straight down on top of them. The basement filled with screams, dust, and the thunder of collapsing stone.

My mother and I didn’t hesitate. She hauled my sister onto her back. I pulled my father up as best I could, bracing his weight against my shoulder, and together we stumbled toward the stairs.

The moment we made it out the door, the entire ceiling caved in behind us.

The basement vanished beneath a mountain of rubble.

No one inside survived.

My mother stood outside in the alley, staring at the wreckage with a pale face and shaking hands. “Spring… what do we do now?”

I gave her a small smile and pulled a thick wad of cash from my robe. In the confusion, I had taken it from the men who came to torment us.

“First,” I said, “we find somewhere safe. Then we get Dad and Nina treatment.”

Hope returned to my mother’s eyes so suddenly it hurt to look at. She nodded again and again. “Okay. Okay. We’ll do exactly that.”

Once I settled them into a small rental house on the outskirts of the city and found a doctor willing to help without asking too many questions, my mother finally told me everything.

After I was taken to the temple, my sister studied harder than anyone else in school. She wanted to grow up fast, get a good job, and earn enough money to bring me home.

Our hometown had never tolerated my family after what happened, so my parents left and moved to the city. They worked endless hours at construction sites, diners, laundromats, anywhere that would take them. Even then, they could only afford basement apartments and borrowed furniture.

They never told me how hard it was because they didn’t want me to worry. They thought temple life, simple as it was, at least gave me peace.

Then my sister graduated college and landed a job at Lawson Group, one of the most powerful companies in the city.

She worked as personal assistant to the company’s young CEO, Lucas Lawson.

She was smart, efficient, and hardworking. She landed a major client on her own and was promised a bonus large enough to finally move our parents out of that basement apartment. She told Mom and Dad she would buy them a proper place. A house with windows. A house where they could finally come get me.

But before that bonus was ever paid, Lucas Lawson’s fiancée, Vivian Clarke, stormed into the company’s annual gala.

And that was where my sister’s life was destroyed.