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I slip awaythe moment Niko’s piano performance is over.
She did amazing.
Somehow, Adam engineered the MTB to look like a pink, girly headband. The pack that delivers vibrational frequency to her ribs was under her clothes, so no one in the audience would know that she had any device on.
I was absolutely bursting with pride and completely in the moment…
Until I saw Sazuki and Ashanti hugging.
After that, the night was ruined for me. I hurled an excuse at Vanya, bustled out of the auditorium and hurried home.
Now, I’m sitting in my pajamas, trying to get drunk on wine and popcorn while my sister scolds me from a video call.
“You should have stayed,” Yaya signs on the screen. “And grabbed her hair.”
“Do you think my life is a reality show?”
“You’re friends with a bunch of real-life billionaires,” Yaya gestures. Her eyes widen to emphasize the point. “You’re not living in reality.”
I grip my wine glass. “It’s over. I’m going to find a way to graduate without having to work with him. Even if it means quitting school and starting all over, I’m not going to torture myself watching him be happy with her. I can’t do it.”
“Tell him that.”
“I can’t,” I croak. My mind flips back to Ashanti’s speech in the apartment and her smug words when I ran into her at the foundation.
Niko’s so much happier seeing her mom and dad trying again.
“Niko deserves to have her parents together. And I’m not a home wrecker.”
She flings me an angry look. Her hands flail. “He’s divorced. He wrecked his own home. Not you.”
“But now he can build it back. I shouldn’t get in the way of that.”
There’s a knock on the door.
My shoulders slump.
I have no energy to get up.
The knock sounds again.
I groan and squeeze my eyes shut.
“What?” Yaya gestures.
“Someone’s here.”
“Maybe it’s Sazuki,” she signs.
I refuse to allow that thought to give me hope. “I doubt it. I’ll check who it is and call you back.”
She blows me a kiss and signs off.
I drag myself to the door. “Who is it?”
“It’s me,” Vanya’s voice echoes.
Stunned, I unlock the door. “Vanya?”
