Everyone froze.
Grant stood beside the bed with one hand gripping the rail.
“Why?” I asked.
Diane looked at me.
Not ashamed.
Not guilty.
Angry.
“You want to know why?”
“Yes.”
She gave a small, bitter laugh.
“Because you’ve spent your whole life pretending you built everything yourself.”
It felt like a slap.
“I never said that.”
“You didn’t have to.”
She pointed at me.
“Your little business. Your little house. Your perfect husband. Everybody talks about Natalie like she clawed her way out of nothing.”
Grant stiffened.
“Diane—”
“No. She wants the truth? Fine.”
She stared directly at me.
“You had advantages Brielle never had.”
I almost laughed.
“I worked two jobs through college.”
“And why do you think you could?”
“What does that even mean?”
Then Thomas Vale spoke.
“Diane, don’t.”
She smiled at him.
That smile frightened me more than anything else she had done.
