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Kiera swallowed, her hands still tingling where Izzy had touched her.

CHAPTER 20

Izzy

The morning of the funeral,the house was quiet with the kids taking naps in their rooms, leaving only the muffled sounds of Maggie’s aunts murmuring in the living room and the occasional clatter from the kitchen. Izzy leaned against the counter, nursing the last of her coffee, when the front door suddenly swung open with zero warning.

“The Comfort Brigade has arrived!” Pete’s voice boomed through the house, immediately breaking the fragile silence.

Izzy nearly choked.

Kiera, sitting at the table flipping through the funeral program details, did not even flinch.

Izzy barely had time to react before Pete came barreling into the house, suitcase in tow. Danica followed behind with a much more reasonable expression of concern.

Maggie looked up from her spot on the couch, where she had been staring blankly at the ceiling. Her face shifted slightly, relief flickering through the exhaustion. “You guys are here.”

Pete dropped her bag immediately and crossed the room in four strides, dragging Maggie into a bone-crushing hug.

“Of course we’re here.” Pete’s voice was softer now, her usual bravado muted by the reality of why they were all gathered. “You think we’d let you go through this without us?”

Maggie let out a shaky breath against Pete’s shoulder, clutching her back like she was grounding herself. “You don’t know how much I need this right now.”

Danica, less of a human battering ram than Pete, settled next to Maggie and offered a gentle smile. “We brought emergency snacks, and I have a fully drafted medical excuse to get you out of talking to any relatives you don’t want to deal with.”

Pete grinned, finally pulling back. “And by emergency snacks, she means we raided a gas station on the way here, and I may or may not have bought a questionable amount of gummy worms.”

Maggie actually huffed out a weak laugh, shaking her head. “Appreciate it.”

Pete moved to hug Gwen on the opposite side of the room next, and Izzy watched as Gwen tensed before relaxing into the hug. Izzy glanced toward Maggie to see if she was looking at Gwen, but she was consumed in giving Danica a bone-crushing hug. There was distance, thick and heavy, every time Gwen and Maggie were in the same room.

Pete, oblivious to the underlying tension, greeted Izzy and Kiera, then flopped onto the couch beside Maggie like she had claimed it as her personal throne. “What do you need, baby cakes? Coffee? Please tell me someone has coffee. Danica made me get to the airport like two hours early.”

Gwen finally piped up. “I could make a fresh pot if anyone else wants some?”

For the first time in days, Maggie actually looked right at Gwen. “Yeah, that sounds good.”

Izzy had never seen a person move so fast. Gwen’s desperation to help Maggie was palpable. Kiera raised a brow, locking eyes with Izzy, as if to question if they’d both noticed it. Perhaps the stalemate was over.

Izzy had assumedthat the most stressful part of the afternoon of the funeral would be keeping Maggie from spiraling into a complete emotional shutdown. She was wrong.

The most stressful part was the dress.

“Ohmyfuckinggod,” Maggie whispered as she sat down on the edge of her bed, staring at the black dress in her hands in utter horror. It was ruined, covered in dozens of spots in shades of gray and yellow.

“It’s really bad, isn’t it?” Gwen asked, her face stricken with guilt as she hovered nearby, her nervous energy palpable in the way she was wringing her hands. “I was trying to get the wrinkles out and used the spray bottle, but I must have grabbed the wrong one.”

Maggie didn’t move or respond. She just kept staring at the dress like it had personally betrayed her. Or worse, like Gwen had personally betrayed her.

Izzy had only come in to ask Gwen for a pair of black socks when she’d seen the spotted dress in Maggie’s hands. She now attempted to leave, determined not to witness a murder. Unfortunately, she had nowhere to escape, because the second she reached the hallway, Kiera and Danica nearly collided into her.

“What happened?” Kiera asked, her hand on Izzy’s arm.

Izzy pinched the bridge of her nose. “Gwen accidentally bleached the funeral dress.”

Kiera and Danica both froze.

Then, at the exact same time: “Oh, shit.”