“Alex, no, we need to talk.” Lila gestured for Alex to sit on the couch while she perched on the edge of the coffee table. “I have to talk to you about your mother.”
“That’s where you were?”
Lila nodded.
“She’s been arrested, hasn’t she?”
“It’s more serious than just that.”
Alex stared at Lila while she recounted Patrick’s arrest and the chairwoman’s interrogation. She finished with Bullstow’s forced invasion of the Wilson-Kruger estate, leaving out how and why she’d come to be there. “Your mother’s chief must have called them in a panic when they started burning down buildings. People were hurt. I messaged Chief Shaw on the way over. He promised to send me a copy of his—”
Alex shook her head. “You’re joking, aren’t you?”
“No.”
“Patrick couldn’t have done any of that. You have to tell Chief Shaw. He’s just a boy.”
“He’s Johnny’s age.”
“Don’t throw that back in my face. You’re wrong about him. The whole thing was my mother’s doing, not Patrick’s. Patrick’s not very… You know him. How can you even think for one moment that he had anything to do with my m
other’s scheming, that he could come up with anything like that?”
“Because I was there when he confessed. Patrick’s not innocent in all this. He was the one supplying her with—”
Alex slapped Lila’s cheek.
Both stared at one another in shock.
Alex looked away first. She walked into the bathroom, stood before the mirror, and smoothed her blonde hair back into her bun.
Lila hopped up on the counter beside her, her cheek still burning.
“I lost my temper,” Alex said, watching Lila’s face from the corner of her eye.
“I know. I also know this is difficult for you to hear, but Patrick tried to murder me, Alex. He tried to—”
“Maybe you deserve it,” Alex said quietly. “Did you ever think about that? You’ve stolen me from my family. You’ve stolen Simon and given him away. You’ve killed my mother now as well as Patrick. Right now my family’s estate is burning to the ground, all because of you. What do I have left?”
Lila stared at the floor, not sure how to answer. Wasn’t this why she couldn’t face Alex earlier in the day? Because she knew what her friend would say? Because she had destroyed Alex’s family, her home? Because she was the reason that Alex would lose her mother and her brother in a few months?
There wasn’t a way to fix it. There wasn’t any magical phrase that could turn her friend’s anger away. At least she couldn’t think of any, not with her friend’s large eyes searching her face, waiting for her to reveal a punch line, to claim it was all nothing more than a prank.
Lila wished it was.
“Say something,” Alex snapped.
“What can I say? I thought your mother was behind everything. You did, too, or you wouldn’t have helped me. I was wrong, though. We were wrong. Alex, I—”
“Don’t you dare call me that anymore,” she hissed. “Was it even real when you took me to my family’s estate? All that stuff we overheard in the car?”
“Of course it was real.”
“No, it wasn’t. You wanted to keep me as your pet while you tore my family apart, just like after your mother bought my mark, and I was stupid enough to play along because I can’t remember my place.”
Lila hopped off the sink. “You’re upset. I understand that. I’ll take care of Simon. I’ll make sure that Chief Shaw revisits his case. He’ll be turned over to us as a minor slave, and I’ll get my mother to put him back in school until he graduates. I’ll do the best I can for him and for you. But Patrick did this. He’s guilty whether you want to hear the truth or not.”
“No, he’s not. And don’t you dare go near Simon. I don’t want him anywhere near you or your family. You turn everything to ash.”