Chapter 4

Early the next morning, Elise sat at the dining table, staring at a bowl of congee.

Beside it were fried dough sticks, little steamed buns, and the rest of a Chinese breakfast she still couldn't quite believe was meant for her.

When she first came to the Whitmores, everyone else ate Western breakfasts. The one time she had asked for something different, Vivian had laughed at her in front of them all. After that, Elise had seldom joined her brothers in the morning. Eventually, everyone had grown used to her absence, and the staff simply carried a tray up to her room.

Today, she had been putting her completed exercise books in order when a housekeeper knocked, all eagerness, to tell her breakfast was waiting downstairs.

Julian had asked her to come.

Now there were three of them at the table, and Vivian was the only one eating a Western breakfast. Julian had the same food as Elise. He seemed to be enjoying it, too.

Since when had his tastes changed?

And last night, the housekeepers who regularly brought her cold meals had all turned up to apologize.

Elise looked at her breakfast again.

Perhaps Julian had come across the fable about the farmer and the viper on his way home from his business trip. Perhaps it had reminded him of Vivian. He had taken the warning to heart and decided his affection would be better spent on his own flesh and blood.

That had to be it.

He couldn't possibly have come back to life the way she had.

“Don't you like it?” Julian asked, setting down his spoon when he noticed she hadn't started eating.

Only that morning had the butler told him how the staff had been treating her. He had given the housekeepers a severe dressing-down and would have dismissed the lot of them, but then he learned that they had apologized and Elise had forgiven them. In the end, he had docked their year-end bonuses instead.

“No, it's fine.”

Her voice was polite and distant, leaving little room for another question.

Whatever had happened to Julian, she had no intention of getting tangled up with her brothers again. If she lived the same life twice, she might end up dying at twenty-five twice, too.

Besides, she had studying to do.

He lowered his eyes, hiding his disappointment. She was still so cool with him. After all that time spent keeping her at a distance, he couldn't expect to make it right overnight.

A fork scraped sharply across a plate.

Vivian tightened her grip on it.

Since last night, Julian had taken Elise's side and humiliated her in front of everyone. She had meant to ignore him until he apologized. Clearly, she had been expecting too much. He hadn't said a word to her all morning. He hadn't even looked at her.

“School starts in a few days,” he said to Elise. “Tell the butler if there's anything you need.”

That got her attention.

“All right.”

After bringing her home, the Whitmores had arranged her transfer to Northbridge High, the best academic school in the city. Her old school's term hadn't finished yet, so she had stayed to complete it. Now she would start eleventh grade at Northbridge.

She was looking forward to it. She hadn't transferred there in her previous life, and the teachers and resources at an ordinary school couldn't compare. If she wanted a place at her first-choice university, Northbridge was her best chance.

“Have you thought about which course groups you'd like to be placed in?” Julian asked, following the first sign of interest she had shown.

Elise paused.

“I get to choose?”

“Julian, are you going to pull strings for her?” Vivian's voice rose before she could stop it.

He had always believed in fair competition. He had never interfered with her academic placements.

Northbridge used its own assessments to place students in course groups. Vivian usually kept herself among the top fifty in her year. Occasionally, she slipped out of the advanced groups, but a few nights of hard work could get her back in at the next assessment.

Yet he was willing to make an exception for Elise?

Elise considered the question. From what she had heard, students chose their junior-year humanities and science courses, then had their placements reviewed at intervals according to their results. Where she started wouldn't matter much.

Even if she began in the lowest groups, she was confident she could earn a place in the advanced ones at the next round of assessments.

“Let the school decide,” she said clearly. “I'll be fine wherever they put me.”

Vivian relaxed a little.

“With your grades, it won't make much difference,” she said with a faint laugh. “Even if someone gets you into a better group, the next assessment will put you right back where you belong.”

Elise had hovered around a hundredth in her year at her old school. And those tests weren't nearly as difficult as Northbridge's. For all anyone knew, she could end up near the bottom here.

When it came to grades, Vivian was sure she could beat her.

Something made her glance up after she spoke.

Julian was watching her. There was no warmth in his eyes, and she gave an involuntary shiver before he looked away.

How had he failed to notice this before? Every remark Vivian made seemed to contain another little jab at Elise.

Their parents had happened to adopt Vivian from a children's home. Elise was the daughter born into this family, yet Vivian spoke to her as though she had no right to be here.

Elise let the sneer pass. She closed one hand into a small, determined fist.

“I'm going to work hard. I'm not wasting the chance to learn from teachers like that.”

She meant every word.

Neither of the other two seemed to be listening.

After breakfast, Elise got ready to go out.

Julian had taken the trouble to invite her downstairs. Leaving without a word felt a little rude, so she stopped beside him.

“Julian, I'm going out for a while.”

He came out of his thoughts and glanced toward the windows. The sky was overcast. The forecast had said rain.

“Where are you going?”

She blinked. She had only meant to be polite; she hadn't expected him to ask.

“To buy some practice books before school starts.”

He nodded and called the butler over. The man bent close while Julian gave him a few quiet instructions.

“Drive Ellie there,” he said.

She rarely troubled the butler or the driver when she went out.

“I can take the bus. It isn't far.”

Julian looked at her, plainly unconvinced.

“It may rain.”

The butler was already waiting respectfully at her side, ready to go wherever she asked.

“All right, then.”

Only after the two of them had left did Vivian collect herself.

Julian really had changed. He was being affectionate with Elise, and now he had sent the butler to drive her himself. Before, he had barely seemed to notice she was in the house.

“Vivian.”

His voice was cold enough to make her look up.

At last. He was speaking to her of his own accord. Perhaps he wasn't angry anymore. Perhaps he was about to apologize for last night.

She was still upset, though, and didn't feel inclined to make it easy for him. She said nothing.

With Elise gone, all the gentleness had left his face. He tapped one finger lightly against the table, weighing something.

“How do you feel about your parents? Do you miss them?”

Vivian couldn't understand why he was bringing them up now.

“Of course I miss them. But...” Her expression fell. “They're gone. When I was little, they loved me so much. They couldn't bear to see me hurt. I thought that after they died, you'd look after me the way they did. But then...”

Remembering the wreckage of her birthday party, she felt a fresh, entirely sincere surge of grievance.

Julian studied her face and frowned.

“I meant your birth parents.”

She stared at him.

After so many years with the Whitmores, she had long since thought of herself as their daughter by birth. If he hadn't mentioned it, she would scarcely have remembered that there were other parents to think about.

Her expression shifted before she managed an answer.

“I was so young. I don't really remember them.”

He watched her coldly. Her own birth parents, and in all these years she had never once wanted to find them?

“Starting tomorrow, I'll have my assistant look for them.”

“What?” For a moment, she thought she must have misheard.

His expression didn't change.

“They're your only family in this world. You ought to be reunited with them.”

As far as Julian was concerned, the only family he and his brothers had left was Elise.

The color drained from Vivian's face. A chill spread through her whole body.

Was he going to send her away?

Perhaps her birth parents had abandoned her in the street because they couldn't afford to feed her. What if they sold vegetables for a living, like Elise's adoptive parents?

Who in all of America could possibly have more money than the Whitmores?