“I didn’t do shit,” April snapped and Deven, surprisingly caught the quiver in her tone. Was she actually remorseful? “Kennedy and I got very close when she came to stay with us, but she was weak. She couldn’t really handle the lifestyle like us. Hell, all of us were using, me too, even though I was only a teenager. But see, she couldn’t handle it and got strung out after she was emancipated. But that’s not my doing.”

Deven crumbled to the floor, rocking and bawling as she pictured her baby sister so young and helpless and vulnerable. She could barely hear April over her own cries. “What happened?” she screamed in agony. “What happened to her?”

April put a hand to her lips and took a steadying breath. “That was not supposed to happen,” she reiterated. “Like I said, we lost touch after she left, and we never heard from her again. I came to live with you, Jamie, and Iris, your parents were giving me money and nice things, I was sending it to Erika, we were set. Even afterwards, your daddy still took care of me—”

“Of course, he did!” Deven yelled. “He was a good man and he loved Kennedy like his own daughter.”

“I know. So that’s why it was a sweet come-up.” April paused, her face hardening. “Then Kennedy came back in the picture all of a sudden. I guess she had gotten clean and found out what we were doing. We couldn’t let her ruin everything we had worked so hard to build. And Erika, like I said, she was just so fucking thrilled she was conning your mother that she wouldn’t let me stop, even if I tried. Then that one night when Kennedy attacked me outside, after your miscarriage, I knew I had to do something to get in front of her. But I didn’t know where she was. So, I talked to Keith, and he put me in touch with Deuce to track her down. I had her come over so we could talk . . .” April trailed off, squeezing her eyes shut. “The pills weren’t even my idea. That was Erika’s.”

“You killed her! You murdered Kennedy, you bitch!” Deven felt like she was choking on the words as they singed her throat. Her poor sister.

“It was an accident,” April reiterated, her voice clipped. “They were just supposed to calm her down and put her to sleep. Erika wanted to get her addicted again so she could go away. So, I laid out some pills. Kennedy was so mentally distraught about what was going on that she took them on her own.”

Deven scoffed and that seemed to enrage April. “You don’t have to fucking believe me,” April yelled. “I was there. Not you! I was ALWAYS there with Kennedy. Never you. So don’t act like you were the perfect sister.”