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Chapter One

Madison

My mother has never called my restaurant. Not once in six years. So when Evan comes to find me after midnight and tells me there’s a call for me on the restaurant’s main line, I already know something is wrong.

“Chef?”

I look at him.

“There’s a phone call for you. Line one at the host station.”

“Who is it?”

"She said she's your mother."

Something cold moves through me. “Thanks, Evan.”

I cross the empty dining room and stop behind the host station. A tiny red light blinks beside line one.

I pick up the phone.

"Mom?"

Silence. Not ordinary silence. The kind that changes everything before a single word is spoken. Then I hear her breathe.

"Maddy."

My fingers tighten around the receiver.

Her next breath breaks.

"Mad."

My eyes close. Only Lily calls me that. Mom knows it. She knows exactly what hearing it will do to me.

I grip the edge of the host stand.

Then my mother says six words that divide my life into before and after.

"Maddy, you need to come home."

***

Six hours earlier…

There are exactly three acceptable reasons for sending a steak back to my kitchen. One, it is overcooked. Two, it is undercooked. Three, it has somehow caught fire between my pass and the dining room.

"I ordered medium rare."

I stare at the perfectly pink center of the filet on the plate in front of me. "So did the cow."

Julian makes a choking sound beside me. I turn my head. He has the decency to disguise it as a cough. Barely.

"Problem?"

"Not at all."

"You're laughing."