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“What did you just say?”

“Yeah, I know, I felt pretty s like that happens a lot”

“What about the dad? Where’s he in all this?”

“According to Ella, the wife has him convinced that Gia is just clumsy She said Gia used to act up when she first started working there, which is understandable since she’d just lost her ot remarried in less than a year andGia to the side, her words”

“What else did she say?”

“Just some other stuff about the way they treat her Oh, she said things changed to how they are now about five years ago Gia had kept a bottle of her mom’s perfume hidden somewhere in her room, and the stepmother found it and threw it away”

“Ella said Gia cried for weeks if not er remember her mother’s scent After that, she just kind of withdrew She stopped going to dance class and gymnastics and any other afterschool shit she was into before”

“That’s all I got Oh, and the thing about Victoria turning all Gia’s childhood friends against her by lying about her The rest we know, sort of”

“Yo, Gabe, you breathing? Nah-nah-nah, get that look out your eyes, bruh I didn’t tell you this to o, you need to chill for at least sixyou this, so you know Besides, Aunt Sophie looks like she’s on it”

“What do you mean?”

“You kno she is Once she got through with the poor child this and how sad that she got that look in her eye that your sisters get when they’re about to deure out what’s going on with you and Gianna because I think the women in your family plan to adopt her” I wouldn’t be surprised

“Let’s go eat”

“If you go down there with your face looking like that, as skittish as she is right now, she’d probably bolt”

“What’s wrong with my face?”

“Never mind, what do you plan to do?”