Page 216 of While You Were Trending

“Here for you, Ginny,” Dori says.

“You tell us if there’s anything we can do, hon,” Samantha says.

I don’t register my feet touching the stairs.

Don’t see the wall of photos when I reach the bottom.

Don’t feel the handle when I fling the door open onto the front porch.

My mother’s so loud that her voice is carrying through the windows, carrying on about how everyone here lied to both her and me and how they don’t deserve me.

Playing the victim.

Centering herself as if my life is still hers to own.

“There you are,” she says as I push between Mabel and Olivia, who are blocking her from the top of the porch stairs. “Oh, my sweet angel. My poor dear. My other baby. Mommy’s here.”

“Mabel, call the sheriff,” I say. “Have this woman removed.”

“Already on their way,” Heath says.

“Ginny,” my mother says. “I’m here tohelp.”

“Give me your phone,” I tell her.

“Sweetheart, why on earth would?—”

“Give. Me. Your. Phone.”

She angles away, confirming what I already know.

She’s recording this conversation.

Recording it to leak it.

“It was you, wasn’t it?” I say. “You leaked the news about Caro’s wedding.”

“Virginia. Thatdocumentarianthat your friendsliedto me about leaked the news. You heard him say it yourself.”

“You leaked it because you wanted the attention.”

“I wouldnever.”

“You’d force your children to be on a reality show that destroyed our reputations, and you’d mishandle our money leaving me withnothing, and you’d go on the news after goading me into interrupting Alex’s wedding and claim that I was always a bad seed, that you don’t know where you went wrong with me that I wasn’t as perfect as Caro, but you wouldn’t leak the news about her wedding to the press?”

She stares at me with those wounded victim eyes that used to work on me as a child.

When I’d want a chocolate cake for my birthday but I knew it wasn’t her favorite and why would I not want to celebrate the woman who gave me life on my birthday too?

When I’d run out of shampoo and why was I using so much and didn’t I know how much it cost to keep my hair looking good?

When I’d beg for an art kit and instead get Caro’s leftover bag of yarn from when she decided she wanted to take up knitting.

“How could you accuse me ofeverdoinganythingto hurt you?” she says.

“You finally took the time to look into who Declan actually was instead of assuming he was just hired help and decided this was your chance to get back into Hollywood too, didn’t you?” I reply.

“What is this? What’s with you? You know I havealwaysput you first.”