Chapter 1

The world went black, then exploded in a starburst of pain behind my eyes.

Metal screamed, a terrible, tearing sound.

Then, silence, except for a high-pitched ringing in my ears.

I tasted blood, coppery and warm.

"Ethan?" I tried to say, but my voice was a croak.

He was next to me, slumped against the steering wheel. The car was a wreck, wrapped around a thick oak tree on the side of Old Mill Road.

My head throbbed. I reached out, touched his shoulder.

"Ethan, are you okay?"

He groaned, stirred. His eyes fluttered open, unfocused.

"Jess?" he mumbled, his voice hoarse. "Jess, where are you?"

Jess? Jessica Vance? What was he talking about?

"Ethan, it's me, Sadie," I said, my heart starting to pound a frantic rhythm against my ribs.

He blinked, looked at me, but his eyes were vacant, like he was looking through me.

"Who... who are you?" he asked.

A cold dread washed over me.

"It's Sadie, Ethan. Your girlfriend."

He shook his head slowly. "No. My love... my true love is Jessica. I remember her. I need to find her."

Before I could process the crushing weight of his words, another voice, sharp and familiar, echoed in my mind.

Well, isn't that a fine kettle o' fish, sweet pea? The little weasel.

I flinched. That voice. It couldn't be.

Grandma Rose?

But Grandma Rose was dead. Buried three months ago in St. Patrick's cemetery.

Don't you be mindin' that gobshite, Sarah girl, the voice continued, clear as a bell inside my head. He's playin' you, just like he did in that other time. Amnesia, my foot! Only remembers the other one, does he? Convenient, that.

My head spun. Was I concussed? Hallucinating?

Paramedics arrived then, sirens wailing, lights flashing. They pulled Ethan out first. He kept asking for Jessica.

When they helped me out, I was dizzy, shaken, but mostly whole.

As they checked me over, Grandma Rose kept up her commentary.

See? Not a scratch on ya, praise be. But that charlatan, Ethan? He's rotten to the core, I tell ya. Always was, always will be. You need to steer clear of him, Sadie. Far, far clear.

"I... I don't understand," I whispered, more to myself than to the paramedic taking my blood pressure.

You will, darlin'. I'm here now. Your old Nana Rose isn't about to let that snake hurt you again. Not this time around.

Again? This time around? What did she mean?

That Liam O'Connell, now there's a proper lad. A bit rough around the edges, maybe, but a good heart. He's the one for you, mark my words. He looked out for you before, when you didn't even see it.

Liam O'Connell? My rival? The guy I'd argued with since kindergarten? Grandma Rose thought he was the one for me?

This had to be a nightmare. A very, very strange nightmare.

But the throbbing in my head was real, Ethan' s blank stare was real, and Grandma Rose' s voice, full of her usual Irish sass and no-nonsense advice, was undeniably, impossibly, present in my mind.