Emma squinted, remembering the blurry figure above her. The warning in white chalk. Her heart began to race, thudding so hard against her chest she was scared Madeline and the nurse could hear it. “Did you see someone standing over me when I was lying on the ground? Someone writing something on that chalkboard?”

Madeline narrowed her eyes. “What chalkboard?”

“Someone wrote something,” Emma insisted. “Are you sure it wasn’t Gabby? Lili?”

An expression Emma couldn’t read flitted across Madeline’s face. “I think you need to rest some more. Gabby and Lili were on the stage when the light fell. The custodian said it was just a freak accident—those lights are super-old.” She patted Emma’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry to do this, but I have to get back to the auditorium—Charlotte will have my head if I’m not there to help direct the caterers.” Madeline stood. “Just take it easy, and I’ll check on you when the party’s over, okay?”

The bulletin board on the back of the door swung back and forth as Madeline pulled it shut behind her. The nurse murmured that she’d be back in a moment, too, and slipped out another door. In the silence of the tiny room, Emma shut her eyes, leaned back against the cot’s rock-hard pillow, and exhaled.

Don’t you think you should take your place now, Sutton? Gabby had said just before the ceremony began. You’re at stage left, right? And then Lili had run back upstairs for her iPhone, right where the light was fastened. And then . . . crash. The light hit exactly where she was supposed to be standing.

“Emma?”

Emma opened her eyes to see Ethan hovering over her, his dark eyebrows furrowed with concern. He was dressed in a worn olive-green T-shirt, dark-wash jeans, and black Vans that looked as though they’d been through a wood chipper. She felt the heat of his body as he stepped closer. He took her hand, then glanced away, as if unsure whether touching her was okay. Emma hadn’t been alone with him since the art opening—since she’d rejected him.

She sat up quickly and smoothed her hair. “Hey,” she croaked.

Ethan let go of her hand and dropped down on the black office chair Madeline had just occupied. “I heard a crash backstage. Next thing I know, people were calling your name. What the hell happened?”

A shudder ran through Emma’s body as she told him about the light and the note on the chalkboard. When she was finished, Ethan stood up halfway, his arm muscles taut as he held his body inches above the chair. “Is the message still there?”

“No. Someone erased it.”

He sank onto the chair again. “There were a ton of people backstage as soon as the crash happened. Someone would’ve seen all that, don’t you think?”