Chapter 4

She'd guessed before she even got here that I'd come at her about the shops.

She'd come ready for it. Now she looked at me, all helpless.

"Nina, why don't you take the call yourself?"

She held the phone out to me.

On speaker, the middle-aged man was still cursing away.

"I'm the one who sank my money into that training center."

"And now what, I'm just some hired hand?"

That settled it for the relatives crowded at the door. Every one of them believed him now.

They started laying into me, all talking at once.

Nina's aunt crossed her arms and spoke in that snide, sing-song way of hers.

"If you don't want to lend the money, then don't."

"But why go running background checks first?"

"You'd throw away every scrap of shame just to dodge your aunt, is that it?"

Nina's youngest aunt chimed in from the side.

"Right, a young girl with this many tricks up her sleeve."

One after another they piped up.

I was nearly drowning in it.

Horace got angrier the longer he listened, and warned them to watch their mouths.

I knew he was doing it for me.

That was exactly why I couldn't leave him in the dark about any of this.

So I spoke up again.

"Aunt Christine, do you dare snap a photo of the training center's legal rep and show everyone?"

Christine was losing patience.

"Are you done yet?"

"You made me verify it over the phone, now you want a photo of the legal rep."

"What's next, you want my boss to show up in person?"

She said it, then let out a sigh.

"Nina, what did I ever do to you?"

I looked her dead in the eye and smiled.

"That would be perfect."

In my last life I was certain of it. The training center was theirs.

They welched on the debt and refused to pay.

I had no choice but to take them to court.

Only a forced enforcement order made them sell off one of the two.

I expected her to refuse.

Instead, she actually dialed the number again.

"Boss, you heard all that."

"Could I trouble you to snap a photo of the legal rep on the license?"

The man on the other end grumbled his agreement.

"Hold on. Bunch of lunatics."

Christine hung up and looked at me, daring me to say more.

I frowned and stared at her phone.

About five minutes passed.

The photo came through.

She held the phone up so everyone could see.

Legal representative, printed plain as day: Finn Chavez.

"See it clearly now?"

"What did I ever do to wrong you, that you'd smear me like this, over and over?"

Faced with hard proof, the relatives drowned me in a fresh wave.

"This girl is really out of line."

"Looks like such an honest thing, but her heart's black as pitch."

She saw the shock on my face, and the corner of her mouth curved up.

She turned and complained to the crowd behind her.

"Sister, see? I told you, didn't I?"

"This daughter of yours is too selfish, only ever thinks about herself."

"Doesn't care whether the rest of us live or die."

There were so many people, I hadn't noticed before.

My mother was in the crowd too.

She'd been standing all the way at the back.

Hearing that, she pushed through the crowd and walked right up to me.

Before I could get a word of explanation out,

she raised her hand and slapped me hard across the face.

"Have you made enough of a scene?"

"You won't be happy until you've made me tear ties with my own family, is that it?"

"What are you really after?"

"How did I give birth to a thing like you, who sides with outsiders against her own!"

I held my cheek.

And looked at my mother, calm.

It hurt. But it was nothing next to the hurt inside.

Every time anything touched her family, she went at it like something had gotten into her.

Her family was right about everything.

My father's side, me included, the daughter she'd carried ten months and given birth to.

We could do nothing right.

The crowd looked on cold-eyed, not one of them speaking up for me.

Some even threw fuel on the fire.

"This child doesn't have her own mother in her eyes at all."

"Raised her all these years for nothing."

Christine turned to look at me, her eyes full of triumph.

"Nina, anything else you'd like to say?"

I dropped the hand from my cheek.

Looked at her, and slowly began to speak.

"Of course."

"Just a little while ago, Bright Peak Learning was reported."

"For suspected fraud and illegal fundraising."

Christine laughed like she'd heard the joke of the century.

"You really have lost your mind!"

The words weren't even out before footsteps sounded in the stairwell.

Two uniformed police officers came up.

"Which one of you is Ms. Christine Chavez?"

"The Bright Peak Learning center you run is currently facing multiple charges."

"Please come with us and cooperate with the investigation."