Chapter 4 — The Reason She’s Alive

The silence that fell was total.

It was the silence of nearly two hundred people all understanding, at once, that the story they had been told about this family was about to be replaced by a different one.

Jessica froze.

My father, Mark, stopped his champagne glass halfway to his mouth.

My mother whispered, “Kristen,” one more time, but the word had lost its power; it landed in that silent room and died there, a spell that had finally stopped working.

Jessica recovered first, because Jessica always recovered first.