Details about tonight, I thought. Considering that the last White Glove event had ended with Lily in the hospital and the one before that had led to the discovery of a human corpse, I wasn’t sure opening those envelopes was worth the risk.

“Do I want to know?” my mom asked, glancing at the roses.

The hopeful note in her voice told me she did want to know. She wanted me to talk to her. She wanted me to be her best friend and confidante and vice versa.

I wasn’t sure if Aunt Olivia had invited her here to punish me for the way I’d interacted with Ana, or if, in the wake of Uncle J.D.’s infidelity, my aunt had somehow decided it was time to bury other axes.

Ultimately, it didn’t really matter.

“Sawyer,” my mom said. “I’m trying here. Really trying. Just tell me what I can do.”

Go back in time, and tell me the truth. I couldn’t say those words. I couldn’t even think them without feeling guilty. That was the most impossible thing about this whole situation. No matter what she’d done or hadn’t done—what she did or didn’t do going forward—part of me would always feel like it was my job to make it better.

My job to love her.

“Did Aunt Olivia tell you her husband is having an affair?” I asked, managing to keep my voice even and not betray the emotions churning inside me, threatening to erupt.

“She did, in fact,” my mom said. I could see her bracing herself for me to say something to the effect that this wasn’t the first time.

I didn’t. I was so tired of being angry. I didn’t want to hurt her any more than I wanted loving her to hurt.

So instead, I let my fingers curl around the windowsill for a moment, and then turned back to her. “Did Aunt Olivia tell you the person he’s having an affair with is Ana Gutierrez?”

CHAPTER 27

“Ana gave her baby up?” Of everything I’d told my mom in the past hour, that was what surprised her the most. “Why would she do that? Did her parents make her? Did she . . .”

“Did she what?” I asked when my mom trailed off.

“I don’t know.” My mom looked younger than she had at the beginning of this conversation, and a little lost. “It was one thing when Greer had a miscarriage.” Still sitting on Lily’s bed, she pulled her knees up and tucked them close to her body. “But Ana just deciding to give her baby away? That wasn’t the plan.”

I remembered the pictures I’d seen of the three of them, white ribbons tied around their wrists or wound through their hair. That wasn’t the pact.