When I overheard Felicity sternly order Cody to “please just leave me alone, I’m dealing with enough already,” followed by his approaching footsteps, I scurried down the hallway, searching for a place to hide. I don’t know why I felt the need to hide; they were the ones who were clearly hiding something. But tucked safely in the corner where the hallway emptied into what had originally been a smoking room, I waited until Cody passed by before I slipped out and headed back toward the kitchen.

On the way I bumped into Felicity, almost causing her to drop the wine bottle she carried by the neck, and the plates swayed with me.

“Oh my gosh, sorry!” I yelped, jumping back.

In her other hand she held two wineglasses, her palm cupping the bottom of the glasses as the stems poked between her fingers.

“It’s okay,” she muttered.

“Do you want me to grab the other glasses?” I offered, trying to make peace, though I wasn’t sure what we were warring over.

“No thanks. I’ll get them.” Raising her chin, she shifted to step around me, but I stepped in front of her.

“Are you still upset with me about giving Vera that baggie of pot?” I asked. “Because honestly, Felicity, I never meant to do anything behind your back. I was just trying to prevent Vera from going to someone else for it.”

“Would you still be upset if I did that to your child?” Good ol’ Felicity, so political, answering a question with a question.

“I’m not a mother, so I can’t answer that. But I want to fix things between us, and I don’t know how.”

“Really? You’re going to claim you don’t know how to fix things? How about you bring my missing daughter home?” The accusation behind it bit me. She blamed me. Hell, I blamed me too, but for very different reasons.

“You know if I could I would.”

Felicity pointed at me, her finger hovering an inch from my nose, the wine bottle bumping my chin. “You, Marin, are lucky you don’t have to suffer the weight of motherhood. It’s an awful beautiful burden. And it hurts so damn much.”

Her arm tilted; her whole body tilted under the influence of the five glasses of wine and two fingers of whiskey. And that was only what I had witnessed her drinking.

“I’m lucky, huh?” Shoved in my face, dangling from her wrist, her gorgeous bracelet sparkled under the light. “If I was lucky, I’d have children who loved me like yours do, a home that wasn’t falling apart, and I’d be wearing a bracelet like that. You’re so spoiled on love and wealth and attention that you don’t see what you have. But the rest of us commoners do, Felicity.”

Felicity looked at the jewelry as if seeing it for the first time.