Clara is pulled into a hospital emergency when Tessa needs a blood transfusion, interrupting a private confession: at eighteen she spent her savings to buy a remote grave because she wanted never to see her family again. Elias Payne, heir to Cetra's richest man and Clara's fiancé, arrives; everyone assumes he loves her, though she used to think so. Nurses find Clara is Rh‑negative and hurriedly draw her blood while a staffer apologizes for the prick. After the rushed donation, someone demands, "Clara, where have you been?"