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“Don’t you take that tone with me,” she hisses back. “And don’t shift the blame on other people. Own up to your mistakes for once.”

“You’ve got to bekiddingme,” I let out a ragged puff of air. “You want me to take a picture of my phone history? I haven’t heard anything about this until now.”

“I don’t need your empty assurances. It’s probably better you didn’t come.”

I feel like she slapped me in the face. The pain and anger mix together until my jaw aches from how hard I have my teeth clenched.

“Maybe I should be glad I didn’t get told until now, then,” I spit out like a juvenile.

“Maybe you should.Goodbye, Adelaide.”

She hangs up after her bitter farewell, leaving me floundering. I shouldn’t have said that. Lowering myself to her level won’t yield results. I’ve never yelled at her before. Instead of shaking her up, the end result was even more stubborn denials of my innocence.

No way am I letting this one go. I can’t. This has all gone way too far.

I call the source to ask my anger-filled questions and demand explanations.

Daniella.

She picks up on the fourth ring, sounding exasperated and speaking in a hushed tone.

“What?”

As an opening, this isn’t what I was expecting. The hostility in her tone is a little much when I’m the one who should be mad.

“What do you mean,what? You didn’t call me to help?”

“Hang on, Maman,” Dani calls out, and there’s a shuffling sound before a door closes, and her voice goes to a normal volume.

“No, I didn’t,” she admits with a gritty tone.

My mouth drops open, and all my air vanishes like I just got a punch to the stomach.

“But Maman thinks you did,” I barely manage to get out.

“And no one will ever know any different, you get me?” she assures me firmly. “I didn’t want you making a mess of everything.”

What the hell?

“What are you talking about?” I choke out in disbelief.

“All you do is create drama and act like a fool. I don’t need the asshole’s legs broken or any other nonsense. I wanted to get out of there with some dignity and lick my wounds. I know you wouldn’t have let it go even if I asked you to. You can’t blame me for not wanting to deal withyouon top of everything else.”

I’m speechless. I know Dani and I aren’t best buddies, but damn. She’s right that my first thought would be to track him down and beat the crap out of him. Asher would be down. Some of Suzette’s guys, too, I’m betting.

They were all welcomed, so why wasn’t I? And why lie about it? She has to know that it would cause me nonstop trouble with Maman.

“I would have respected your wishes, Dani,” I mutter helplessly. “Why did you lie about calling me?”

“It got Maman off my back like it always does. As long as you’re in her sights, she leaves the rest of us alone. How do you not know this by now? You’re always her go-to when anger hits. I just made sure itstayedon you so I could actually get through this without a lecture. Even Asher came. With all his troupe in tow. Have you met them yet? Oh, no, you haven’t. One of theadd-onstold me that.”

The phone slides away from my ear in disbelief at the twist of smug glee in her voice.

Dani has never gotten along with me. It got worse after we left Dad behind. She cozied up to Maman and became her right-hand woman in any situation. We butt heads just as much as I do with Maman. I didn’t realize it was this bad, though.

Bad enough to make fun of the fact that I live in the same town as Asher and still haven’t met his cake. I set that pain aside to focus on the rest of this eye-opening lesson.

She’s been riling Maman up to focus on me? Just to keep herself from getting the same hate I have to deal with nonstop. And now she’s extending that to keeping me as far away as possible to make sure my so-called drama doesn’t touch her?