But I could not take her upstairs.
“I’ll go with her,” Bianca said.
I stared at her.
She seemed startled by her own offer.
“No.”
“Elena, I know you have no reason to trust me, but she shouldn’t be alone with someone she’s never met.”
“She won’t be alone,” Priya said.
Bianca shook her head.
“I’m the one who said those things in front of her.”
“Yes,” I said.
Her eyes lowered.
“I shouldn’t have.”
The apology was quiet, stripped of performance.
It did not erase what she had done, but it revealed something I had not expected: regret.
“I thought you knew,” she said. “I thought you came here to cause a scene.”
“Why would you think that?”
“Because Adrian told me you were separated.”
I felt Mila become still in my arms.
Priya’s face hardened.
“When?”
“Months ago.”
“And you believed him?”
