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“Do they know you’ve been lying to me?” Sadie said. “Today, when we were with Mark and Greta. Were you all laughing at me behind my back?”

“No, not at all. They told me this would backfire. They said I should’ve told you I wasn’t Catch.”

“But not that you’re actually Spark.”

“I tried to tell you yesterday,” Joan said. “But, I don’t know. I didn’t want to admit to something so… And you were so happy. You have such a high opinion of the Supers. I wasn’t sure you’d believe me.”

A tiny glimmer of sympathy flickered in Sadie’s heart. Everyone was afraid of the Supervillains. It couldn’t have been easy to?—

No.Joan was not going to get let off the hook for this. For lying and thieving and?—

“The money.” Sadie shook her head. This was so unbelievable and surreal. “Were you gonna give me dirty stolen money to open my café? That’s horrible.”

Shrugging her hands, Joan said, “Okay, yes, it’s stolen money. But we only take from big corporations. We never rob local businesses like Vector City Café.”

“No, you just destroy them.”

“Ididpay for the window repair. We do stuff like that all the time. Mark and I genuinely feel bad when people have to clean up after Super activity.”

She really wanted to be angry, but that caught her attention. “So, you were the one who made that deposit?”

“Yes.” Sincerity shined on Joan’s face. “The Supers never pay for their damage. They’re kind of assholes. I’m always cleaning up after their messes.”

“With money you’ve stolen from said businesses,” Sadie pointed out.

“It’s an imperfect system. But again, we only take from corporate fat cats.”

“And you want to give it all up and use your ill-gotten gains to open a coffeehouse and food truck? Or was that a lie, too?”

“No,” Joan insisted. “I want to go legit. I want everything we talked about. The only way I can do it is with that money. I don’t have a financial footprint, or credit cards.”

“Then how did you rent an apartment?” Sadie said.

“Paid double the security deposit plus a year’s worth of rent in cash.”

“Stolen cash,” she grumbled.

“Well, it’s easier to rob a bank than get a loan, am I right?”

Sadie gripped her biceps and tilted her head in disbelief. “Are you actually making a joke out of this?”

“No, but you know how hard it is to get approved for a bank loan.”

“Did you stop to think that’s because people like you make it impossible to insure a business?”

“Not until you pointed that out to me.” Joan scratched at her scalp. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know. You’ve opened my eyes to?—”

“You were going to involve me in illegal, fraudulent activity,” Sadie said. “What if that money was traced to me? I could go to jail. I could lose everything.”

“I…” Joan ground her palms against her eyes and groaned loudly. “Fuck, I am so sorry. I royally screwed this up. I just wanted us to be happy.”

“You did screw up. Badly.”

Sadie walked to the couch and sank onto the edge. Turned on the lamp beside it so she wasn’t in the dark. Joan had kept her in the dark for too long.

She dropped her elbows to her thighs and cradled her head in her hands. It felt like a thousand pounds, it was so filled with pulsating emotions.

Joan cleared her throat. “Look, I’m not going to pretend like not coming clean was right. But having you involved in Super activity is dangerous. There are some real bad bad guys. This Melvin situation has been a giant pain. I don’t want you anywhere near it.”