Chapter 1This Time, I'll Just Watch

We were having fondue at home when I felt the tingle of leaking electricity. I lunged for the cord and shut it off, saving my family from electrocution.

But my sister’s next words condemned me to a fate far worse.

“April,” she whispered, her eyes welling with tears, “are you just jealous of my eighteenth-birthday present?”

My mother’s slap sent me reeling. She screamed at me, demanding to know why I would dare covet my sister’s gift.

My father grabbed me and shoved my face toward the pot, promising to get justice for his precious daughter.

The scalding broth flooded my world. I spent a month in the hospital, a husk of flesh and pain, before my parents refused to pay the bills. They had me discharged and dumped under a bridge, where the stray dogs found me.

This time, as I came back to myself, my father’s voice echoed in my ears. “Why does the broth feel… tingly?”

“I put in some peppercorns.”