“You fucking bitch,” Hunter says, but Lincoln clamps a hand on his shoulder as Cricket leans against my side for support. I wrap an arm around her body to keep her upright.

“This can’t be happening,” she whispers, her voice breaking. She jerks away from me to reach out, and the sound of her palm cracking against Karma’s cheek rings out in the room. “How dare you? You are dead to me.”

Cricket whirls and bolts toward the door.

“Baby, wait,” Hunter calls out.

My cousin pauses and turns back, shaking her head. “No. I have to go.” Tears spill down her cheeks as she runs out of the room.

“Cricket!” Hunter yells, but Lincoln holds him back.

“I’ll go after her,” I say before heading for the door.

Cricket’s already out of sight, but Jackie is standing in the alcove with the girls.

“What happened?”

“You need to talk to Karma. It’s . . . it’s bad.”

Jackie’s brows draw together and I run for the elevators, intent on getting to my cousin as quickly as possible.

Thirty-Two

Lincoln

Everyone in the room stares at Karma, and I guarantee not a single thought in anyone’s mind is complimentary.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Hunter asks her. “I don’t even know what to say to you. You fucking have my kids, and then what? Pass them off as someone else’s?”

“I did what I had to do. Ricky had a hell of a lot more money than you, and he did right by them. That’s what matters.”

“You fucking bitch.”

“Hey, man, calm down. This isn’t gonna help,” Asa says.

My friend whips his head toward Whitney’s brother. “She just ruined my goddamn wedding to the woman of my dreams . . . and you want me to fucking calm down? I need to talk to Cricket.”

He pulls away from my hold, but Jackie hits the doorway with her granddaughters, and Hunter freezes as soon as he sees them.

The two little brown-haired girls stare at their mom as Hunter locks his eyes on them. All the tension drains from his muscles as he drops into a chair and rests his elbows on the table. “Jesus Christ.”

Jackie looks from him to Karma to the girls, and she’s no doubt thinking what we’re all thinking. How didn’t we see it before?

And now Karma says she’s pregnant . . . with Ricky Rango’s kid. A kid that could possibly carry Riscoff blood in its veins, if Renee was somehow telling the truth.

Fucking hell.

“I’m going to go check on my sister and my cousin,” Asa says.

“I’m going with you,” Hunter and I both reply.

“Karma, what did you do?” Whitney’s aunt asks quietly. “Please tell me that you didn’t—”

“Don’t lecture me, Mom. You don’t have a whole lot of room to talk.”

Jackie sucks in a harsh breath like her daughter just stabbed her, and I don’t even want to know what she’s talking about. All I care about right now is Whitney and her cousin and my best friend.