Chapter 16: FELIX

Stupid! Stupid, gullible fool, and worst of all, negligent. Is that why the kid had brought Gia to the house looking like that? Did he know how much it would shake things up, especially me? It’s amazing what you learn when people think you’re not listening, I’m just ashamed that it took me this long.

Apparently, there’s more to the story that Becky told me about Victoria being suspended for arguing in school. What did the Russo kid mean by looking for a new school? You don’t change schools over suspension. But more to the point, how many times in the past did Victoria make that snarky comment about her adoption being an improvement? Always before, she’d passed it off as a joke, but today for the first time, it sounded ugly, mean.

She’d been Gia’s closest friend, as close as sisters Adrienne had once said. I believed that, had that too been a lie? I want to run and hide, bury my head in the proverbial sand. Weak, I know, but thinking of the mess I would need to unravel if all this is