Rose and I give each other dark glances. It’s not done by a long shot. But lunch does sound nice. Too bad I don’t have time to eat if I want any shot of being the one to share today’s breaking news with Mom. So, I let the others go off to lunch and head to my room to call her. When I check my call log, though, I realize I have two missed calls. One from Rachel, and one from Mom.

I couldn’t even have this, huh?

Mom answers on the second ring. “Danni, honey?”

“Hi.”

“Hi, sweetie.” She takes a deep breath and laughs a little. “I saw something on the news just now.”

“It’s true,” I say flatly before she spends too much longer trying to spit it out. “I’m sorry.”

When she replies, her voice is hard. “Don’t you ever apologize, Danni. I don’t want to ever hear you do that again. Not to me, not to anybody.”

I try to reply, but I’m starting to feel like I might cry any second, so I don’t say a word.

She continues. “I love you more than anybody in the entire world. You’re my girl and I am so, so proud of you. Every day you make me prouder. That’s all I have to say.”

I press my lips together, feeling overwhelmed tears threatening to spill. I draw a shaky breath, trying to think of what to say.

“Are you okay, sweetie?”

I shake my head a few times, trying to find my voice. When I open my mouth, a sob bursts out instead of words. “Not really,” I manage.

“I’d like you to come home for the week. You need to be here with us. You need space.”

“I can’t, Mom. I have practice exams coming up. There’s too much going on.”

“Screw exams,” she says, catching me by surprise. “You won’t be taking anything. You’ve been through trauma. There’s an exemption for that. I’ll speak to the headmaster—”

“I don’t want you to speak to him about this—”

“We’ll lie, then. Say Dennis died and I need you home for the funeral arrangements.”

“Mom!”

“Okay, maybe not Dennis. That’s easily fact-checked. How about Auntie Kylie?”

“Mom,” I said, cracking a reluctant smile. “Thank you. But I don’t want to go home. I want to stay here. I have to.”

“Well, if you want to, that’s one thing. But don’t you think you have to. Your grades aren’t worth your well-being.”

“Okay, Mom. Thank you.”

“I love you, Danni. Please don’t forget you can call me whenever you need to. It doesn’t matter what the time is or what day it is. Call me.”

“I will.”

“Promise me?”

“Promise.”