[Elena's POV]

Jessica stopped at the edge of the pool, and the garden went quiet around us.

She looked at me the way you look at something you scraped off your shoe. Her wine glass tilted in her fingers, careless and deliberate.

"I've been watching you all evening," Jessica said. Her voice was polished, almost pleasant. The Upper East Side accent came through clean and practiced.

"You really do commit to the performance, don't you? The dress, the diamonds, the wounded little shoulder."

She ...