Chapter 4

The hospital lobby stretched before me like a gauntlet I had to walk. Marble floors gleamed under harsh fluorescent lights as I stood rigidly beside James, his fingers digging into my arm—a gesture that appeared supportive to onlookers but served as a warning to me. Amanda's family had gathered in a semi-circle: her parents, two siblings, and her grandmother in a wheelchair, all wearing expressions of righteous indignation.

"It's time," James whispered, his breath warm against my ear but his words ice cold. "Make it convincing."

I stepped forward on trembling legs. The story they'd concocted was absurd—that I had…