“You’re going to take everything from me, huh? Not gonna stop until you break me?” she murmured.

“Are you kiddin’ me?” I seethed, losing patience. “You have the entire world at your feet. Everything I have—this role, West, life—has come to me after twice the work you put into things.”

“Exactly!” Tess growled with frustration, waving her hands around in front of my face. “Exactly that, Grace. Everything you’ll ever achieve will be hard-earned, if even possible, in the world of acting. It’s clear Professor McGraw gave you this role to cut a corner and let you pass. I’m the one who gets screwed over here. I’m the one who is losing the role of her life.”

The worst part was I knew Tess truly wasn’t a horrible person deep inside. She simply wanted all the things that I’d happened to accomplish. Up until this year, until West and Blanche happened, she was the nicest to me out of all my peers.

Until I was no longer invisible to everyone else.

Until I became her competition.

Until I won.

“Tess,” I whispered, narrowing my eyes. “I’m sorry you feel that way. But I’m not goin’ to give up the role to appease you. I won’t give up on my boyfriend either. I hope you come to your senses and realize you’re better than this.” I jerked my chin in her general direction. “Have a good rest of the day. I’ll see you at four.”

Turning around, I walked away, feeling her eyes on my back, like a rifle’s lens.

Nobody warned me what was going to happen when the phoenix finally burst up from the ashes, ridding its glorious, red-tipped wings of the heavy dust.

That there would be other monsters and creatures to fight along the way.

That despite having its freedom, there were still battles ahead.

And that all of them would be bloody.

Grace

After a tense rehearsal which consisted of Tess moping and quarreling with Finlay over every minor thing—the stage’s lighting, the late hour, her coffee-stained manuscript, and even the dang weather (“It’s too hot, can’t we continue tomorrow?”) I made my way to my pickup, emotionally drained.

I was so exhausted that I resorted to texting West the good news about my role, which I was growing more and more excited about. I didn’t have it in me to pick up when he called. I couldn’t muster the enthusiasm that the conversation deserved. I promised myself I’d bring him a hearty sandwich tomorrow, made from scratch, and tell him about what had happened with Professor McGraw at length.

I parked in front of my house, walking in to the sound of a commotion upstairs. My back stiffened. Marla was yelling, and the persistent rattle of a wooden door echoed through the house.

“Open up, you old bat. I ain’t asking again. I’ll call Sheriff Jones and have him kick this thing down. You’re puttin’ yourself in real danger here!”

Lord, what now?

I dumped my backpack at the landing, racing up the stairs. Rounding the corner to the hallway, I spotted Marla pounding her fists on the bathroom door, her face flushed and hair a mess. Her fists were pink and swollen.

“Savannah!” Her roar almost blew the roof to the sky. “Open up right this second!”

The sound of water whooshing from the other side of the door filled my ears.

“No!” Grams’ voice jangled like a coin in an empty piggybank, hollow and screeching. “You ain’t fooling me no more. You want to lure my sweet, sweet Courtney back to drugs. I’m not opening up. I don’t know you, miss. If anything, I’m going to call Sheriff Jones and have him come arrest you. This is my property! I may be old, but I sure know my rights.”

It wasn’t the first or even fifth time Grams didn’t recognize Marla, but it was the first time she’d actively resisted her.

“What’s goin’ on?” I asked, placing my hand on her shoulder.

Marla wiped the sweat from her face, shaking her head. When she turned around to face me, I could tell she’d been crying. Her eyes were shiny and puffy.

“I can’t do this anymore, honey pie. I’m so sorry. I just can’t. Your grandmomma is …” She shook her head, pursing her lips to stop herself from bawling. “She’s not doing well. And keeping her here, undiagnosed, is not doing her any favors. You sending her to a nursing home is not about doing what’s convenient for you, sweetheart. It is not a selfish act. I wish you’d understand this. At this point, you’re doing the poor woman a disservice by keeping her here. She is no longer in a position to make her own choices. She ain’t lucid, and she belongs in a place that can accommodate her needs twenty-four seven. Grace …” She choked, her chin wobbling with the impending burst of a wail. “No one is going to accept this job. And that is something you must accept.”

I gave Marla a quick hug and sent her off, then hiked up my sleeves to pound on the door.

The water had begun to leak through the door crack. My breath hitched as I watched the thin sheet of water sliding down beneath my FILAs, making its way to the hallway. Was she filling up the bathtub?

I didn’t know how she managed to lock Marla outside. She wasn’t supposed to be there alone. Ever.

You were supposed to swap out the doorknobs that could be picked from the outside, a little voice inside me fumed. You kept telling yourself Grams was incapable of being so reckless. Of doing something so dangerous. Another lie you fed yourself about her.

“Grams,” I called out in my softest voice. “It’s me, Gracie-Mae, your grandchild. Please open the door so I can help you.”

“Gracie who?” she asked with a suspicious huff. “I don’t know any Gracie-Mae. The only family I have is Freddie and my Courtney, and she’s in trouble, because riffraff like yourself are trying to sell her drugs. But I’m not going to let it happen anymore. It ends now. Right, Courtney, baby?”

Who was she talking to?

Dear God, how bad was she?

But I already knew the answer to that question. I just pretended it wasn’t so.

I grabbed the door handle, giving it a shake. When that didn’t work, I slammed my palms flat against the wood desperately.

The water kept pouring, slithering down the stairs now. Just like the night of the fire, but in reverse. She was going to drown. I couldn’t let it happen. I feared even if I called West or Sheriff Jones, by the time they got here, something bad would have happened.

“I’m comin’ in!” I announced, angling my shoulder toward the door and taking a step back. I used all the momentum I could muster and crashed into the door with the side of my shoulder.

Other than possibly dislocating it, nothing happened.

Crap. Crap. Triple crap.

“Grams!” I hit the door, gasping. No answer.

I thrust my shoulder against the door again, trying to pick at the door handle, the sting of tears coating my eyes. I fumbled to take out my phone, calling West while continuing my attempts to open the door.

“Tex,” he answered after the first ring. “What’s up?”

“I need you to come here. Grams locked herself in the bathroom, and the water’s runnin’. It’s everywhere, West.”

“On my way.”

I heard him getting up and the sound of his wallet chain, the jingle of his keys as he scooped them up, and the crunching of his boots on loose gravel.