I scoff. “I raised a boy too, remember? His name is Zach?”
“I know you did. And you did a great job. But Zach was easy—you’ve told me so yourself. Noah and Ryan have had their challenges. And the world is not forgiving of boys who make mistakes.”
“Oh please.”
“It’s true,” Kenya says. “And we all know that there would be a big difference in the way the world would react to Noah getting caught breaking into houses than, say, Rachel. Or even Van.”
I pause a moment, choosing my words carefully. “You mean because Noah’s Black?”
“Yes, because Noah’s Black.”
“But why wouldn’t you trust me?” I say. “After all these years.”
“It’s not about trusting you,” she says, holding her chin aloft. “I’m giving you the context. I love you, Caren, but this is why we didn’t tell you. You can be so sure of yourself, very… rigid. That’s not the way life is. And when it comes to our kids, our own flesh and blood, my baby boy, we have to look out for them, because the world sure as hell isn’t going to.”
“As soon as I got the DM about the stolen bracelet on the Facebook yard sale page, my antennae went up,” Yumi said. “I had seen Noah and Van breaking into that woman’s house. I knew it would be trouble for them.”
I shake my head at Yumi. “So it was you. You’re the one who saw the DMs from Holly Stone.”
Yumi nods.
“And what, you told Kenya?”
“Yes.”
“And then you hatched a plan? To drug me at the Allards’ party and take back the bracelet?” I turn to glare at Kenya. “I know all about how you ‘returned’ the bracelet to Miguel.” I make air quotes around the wordreturned. My tone is all bravado, but I’m fighting back tears. I don’t mention that Finn is the one who told me. I’m sure she’ll assume I learned that tidbit from Miguel.
“It wasn’t supposed to happen like that,” Kenya says. “No one was supposed to put anything into your drink. That was not in the plan. The plan was that we would keep you at the party—”
“Who’s ‘we’?”
“Daniel and Jo.” Kenya’s hand flutters to her neck. “Shawn and me.”
“Got it. All four of you were in on this. Nice. And you, Yumi? What was your role?”
“I was supposed to go to your house and get the bracelet.”
“Got it. You won’t even go to an outdoor art show with me because germs, but you’ll break into my house?”
“That’s not fair. I wasn’t going to break in. I was going to walk in. We have each other’s house codes. But I didn’t do it. When I came up the street, I saw you coming back from the party. I chickened out. You weren’t supposed to be home yet. I was terrified you’d see me. I ran home.”
“Without the bracelet.”
She nods.
“So your little plan backfired spectacularly.” I scowl at Kenya. “You took it, didn’t you? When you came to ‘check’ on me.”
“Yes, I did. And I was checking on you. Both things canbe true. I needed that bracelet and I wanted to make sure you were okay.”
I face Yumi. “When you saw me enter my house Saturday night, did you know I had been drugged?”
“No! Of course not. You looked tipsy. That’s all.”
“None of us knew, I swear,” Kenya says. “We were all trying to keep you at the party, not let you leave. But you did. It wasn’t until after you left that Daniel said don’t worry, she won’t get far, that he had put a lorazepam in your drink. I told him that was messed up. Wrong. That he needed to go follow you, make sure you were okay.”
“How thoughtful.”
“Caren, I had no idea what would happen. That you would walk the dog and that you’d black out and Daniel would leave you in that awful basement. I swear. We would never have agreed to that. No one was supposed to get hurt.”