. CHAPTER 1 — The Push on the Staircase
The sound of laughter reached the top of Jefferson Prep’s marble staircase before anyone saw what had happened.
Mia Carter stood with one hand on the silver railing and the other pressed against the strap of her worn black backpack. Her right leg, braced in a sleek carbon-fiber prosthetic, trembled under the weight of a day that had already been too long. Around her, students in expensive jackets and polished shoes gathered for the school’s Founders Gala, their parents drifting below with champagne glasses and donor smiles.
Mia only wanted to pass through.
She kept her head down, trying not to notice Madison Vale standing on the landing with two friends beside her like guards. Madison was beautiful in the easy, careless way money could make a person beautiful. Her blond hair shone under the skylight. Her white dress looked like it had never known rain, hunger, hospital lights, or fear.
“Well, look who’s here,” Madison said. “The charity project.”
Mia stopped.
“I’m not bothering you,” she whispered.
Madison tilted her head, smiling for the students already lifting their phones. “No, you’re just ruining the view.”
Someone laughed. Someone else said, “Madison, don’t.” But no one moved.
Mia tried to step around her. Madison shifted, blocking the way. A folder slipped halfway out of Mia’s backpack, the corner showing old photographs she carried everywhere, wrapped in a rubber band. Madison noticed.
“What’s that?” Madison asked. “Your proof that people once felt sorry for you?”
“Please don’t,” Mia said quickly, reaching for the folder.
Madison snatched at it. Mia grabbed it back. The movement was small, desperate, but Madison’s face changed as if Mia had committed a crime.
Then Madison shoved her.
Mia’s hand missed the railing by inches.
Her body struck the first step, then the next. Gasps cracked through the atrium. Papers burst from her folder like white birds. Photographs scattered across the stairs and floor. Her prosthetic twisted beneath her as she slid down the last steps and landed hard at the bottom.
For one impossible second, the entire gala went silent.
Mia lay there, eyes open, breath trapped in her throat.
At the top of the stairs, Madison’s smile froze.
Then, from the crowd below, a boy’s voice broke.
May you like
“Mia?”
Ethan Vale pushed through the guests, his face draining of color as he stared at the girl on the floor — and at the photographs lying around her feet.
