The Scorpion

This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design. Myra Rudloff grows up under the shadow of scandal, raised in a cold, anxious home by a domineering aunt and an emotionally distant father, denied ordinary childhood comforts and sent a governess instead of school. When a beautiful young governess arrives, Myra is swept into her first fierce attachment, only to be hurt by jealousy, secrecy, and the reappearance of the governess's disreputable former lover. The child's love curdles into possessiveness and transgression, culminating in the theft and pawning of household silver and the scandal that follows. Sent away to school, Myra enters a lonely adolescence of boredom and emotional restlessness. Everything changes when Olga Radó appears: dazzling, self-possessed, and alive, she awakens in Myra a hunger for friendship, style, and a larger life. Myra engineers every possible chance to see her, is drawn into Olga's warmth and hospitality, and discovers how deeply love can wound and transform. A revolver, a confession, and a final break with the past push Myra toward hard-won independence. As she leaves home, enters strange rooms, and confronts the silence of new places, she learns to claim her own life even as love, memory, and self-destruction remain dangerously intertwined.