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“She looks comfortable.” Suzette crosses her arms over her chest, her dark blue eyes narrowed on her.

I’m dressed as I usually am. This is nothing new. She’s just never seen me shuck the uptight clothes before.

“What’s wrong with how she’s dressed?” One of the men from Asher’s cake asks, looking bewildered. A Hispanic man who looks like a brick wall that scowls a lot. The kind that would make the riddles impossible to answer, so you can’t pass him to the other side. Since Asher never told me his name, I’m calling him Sprinkles.

Maman glances at him in a dismissive way that grates my nerves. It’s just plain disrespectful the way she treats people. I know why, too.

She has them in her sights. She’s trying to ruin the cake.

“I don’t appreciate all thatbody artnonsense,” she tells him as if she’s a teacher and he’s an unruly student.

He raises a brow and makes a big show of slowly turning his head to stare at Asher.

His throat tattoos aren’t subtle. I made them more detailed to hide a few marks that he’d been covering up with his hair when it was longer. He purposely keeps the locks unkempt as a holdover from when he would hide behind them.

“How strange. It’s ok for Ashy-poo but not big sis?”

I blink, my eyes widening as I watch the drama he’s enacting right in front of me. I have to roll my lips in to keep from laughing. I bite down when Asher gives him a frigid go-to-hell stare that means business, and he grins back as if he’s innocent. He’s a feisty one.DefinitelySprinkles.

“My baby would never have gotten those withoutherinfluence,” Maman insists.

That’s true. I talked him into the first one. Just one tiny flower. A rose. We went cliche with it. After that, it was all downhill with as many types of flowers as we could find.

“Besides, now that everyone can see that she’s perfectly fine, we can get down to why we’re here.” Maman gives Asher a sweet smile that screamsyou’re not going to like this, but it’s for the best.

“I was under the impression we were here to help Adelaide.” The friendly smile of Sprinkle’s boyfriend is on point and missing something at the same time. I recognize a mask when I see one. Yup, this is Frosting. The cover for when they need something sweet to look at, with no idea if it’s as hard as a rock.

“Help her?” Daniella leans forward to look at Frosting with a raised brow. “She made a mess, and she can clean it up herself. She can try being an adult for a change.”

Silence falls as people glance at each other. No one seems sure what to say. A few people look my way, waiting for me to spill what’s been going on with my life. How I’m fixing things so Maman can pick it apart piece by piece. She’s even staring at me as if she’s waiting for my excuses.

I don’t bother opening my mouth, which makes her lips thin.

Sophia clears her throat and gives me an awkward smile, eager to distract everyone from their rising tension. “Addie, I’d like you to meet Brad. Brad, this is Addie.” There’s a significant pause before she adds on with a growing sense of joy she can’t hide. “He’s my One.”

She turns to the man, and they share a giddy smile, clasping hands on the table. Maman looks on with an affectionate expression, a complete switch from how she stared at me a second ago.

I kind of figured that out on my own. I wasn’t expecting how hard a hit I would take when I heard it. The way Maman simply believes in Sophia without any type of judgment. The fact that she’s allowed to be happy about it without any reserve, and everyone accepts it without question.

I’ll never get that. I’ll never be able to bring Poe into this room and introduce him with a wide grin. The thought of doing it now scares me. I don’t want him exposed to them any more than he already has been.

Nobody else reacts to the news. Seems everybody else already knew all about it. I doubt I would have known at all whether I had blocked them or not.

“Congratulations,” I smile in a stiff way that feels unnatural. I mean the words, but I can’t put much oomph into it whenmyman is outside this room waiting for me. “When did you meet?”

The social nicety falls out of me without much thought. Sophia introduced him, and it was my turn to be polite and show interest. It’s weird not to celebrate it with her. I should be running around the table to give her a fat hug and shake her around. I keep that urge tightly under wraps for my own sense of peace.

It’s the right call because Sophia’s shoulders tense up at the innocent question. My stomach sinks as her eyes fall to the table with nerves.

“About six months ago.” She admits quietly with a guilty glance at her man.

Yup, another hit to the chest. She met him before I met Poe, and this is the first I’m hearing about it. The belated add-on to the good news when their disdain reaches me in nanoseconds.

Suzette was loud about finding her men because she was freaked out. Plus, she likes to talk. It’s probably the only reason I knew anything about it. Sophia is usually the same way, but not a word got leaked to me, even through Maman. That means she asked people to keep it quiet frommespecifically.

My complete lack of surprise seems to make her feel more guilty. When she glances up at me to check how mad I am, I go back to looking at the table. That’s as far as my social pleasantries are willing to extend, and it’s a relief to drop the subject. I’ve stopped arguing with their decisions to keep me out of their loops. I’m exhausted from wasting my time on it.

“You didn’t tell her? You were bragging nonstop for weeks, and Addie doesn’t evenknow?” Asher asks in disbelief. Tera reaches out and puts her hand over his clenched fist on the table. Unconsciously, his hand loosens to allow her fingers to slip between his. She looks upset on my behalf as she glances around the table.