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“No,” Vera starts. “Actually—”

“No, no, no,” Nate tuts. “I want to tell her. This was my idea.”

Vera snorts. “What does it matter?”

“Because you said this was a dumb idea,” he counters.

“At the time,” she deadpans, “I thought it was.”

“I would like a written apology from you both,” Nate says smugly.

“Yeah,” Vera replies. “That’s not going to happen.”

“Well, maybe I won’t—”

“Guys.” I snatch up the haphazard pile I’ve made, pushing to my feet and throwing the entire thing onto the table. “Can you just tell me why you called?”

“Right,” Nate answers contritely. “So, it’s not empty. Actually, you’ll never guess who’s living there.”

He pauses for effect, and I roll my eyes as I stoop to grab one last document I left on the floor. I’m just about to add it to the pile on my table as Nate starts talking again, but a signature at the bottom catches my eye. Nate’s voice fades a bit as I stare at it in disbelief, scanning the rest of the page and feeling my heart rate quicken with every new line. I start sifting through the other pages, and even though there isn’t another occurrence of the signature—not that there needs to be, the one is damning enough—thereisan obvious pattern. One that has my blood rushing in my ears.

“Hello?” Nate sounds impatient. “Did you hear me? Are you even listening?”

“No,” I tell him honestly. “Sorry. I wasn’t.”

“Oh my God, stop spacing out. This is important! I think we really have something here.”

I swallow thickly, glancing at the signature on the first page again before setting it gently back on the table.

“Yeah…” I say breathlessly. “Yeah, I think I do too.”

Thirty

Dani

“You are squirming,Danica.”

I will my knee to stop bouncing, glancing at Bianca, who is smirking at me from her seat. “They’re late.”

“Perhaps Lorenzo needs time to fix his hair,” Bianca muses. “It is looking very thin lately.”

My mouth quirks. “Not everyone ages gracefully, I guess.”

“It is a gift, this is true.”

“At least we’ll be the ones doing the surprising today,” I tell her. “We can make fools ofthemfor a change.”

Bianca makes a disgusted sound. “I never knew Lorenzo would be so sure of himself that he would stoop so low. I should have known better.”

“Lorenzo?”

“I spoke with him,” she says.

“What?” I turn in my seat. “When?”

“He called me a few days ago.” Her expression is resigned, not sad, just…final. “He wanted to try to bully me into going away.I told him if he thinks I would, he is much more of an idiot than I thought. But he told me as much that day. That it was his idea to use the truth against me.”

My pulse quickens; it’s a truth I’ve already arrived at on my own, that Ezra didn’t betray me like I accused him of doing, but hearing it plainly…it’s a strange emotion. Like guilt and relief all wrapped into one.