"Even though you know they provoked me first. Even though you can see I'm the one who got hit." My voice was steady, each word precise. "And you still want me to apologize. Is that right, Carter?"

Carter pressed his lips into a thin line and said nothing.

Leila took that as her cue. She rushed forward and slapped me across the face, just as she'd been itching to do.

"Amanda, shut your mouth!"

"Don't forget—he's your sister's husband now. What right do you have to say something like that?"

I laughed.

But the tears spilled before I could stop them.

"What right do I have?" My voice cracked. "My sister stole my husband. Mom... I have more right than anyone."

Carter's tone went cold. "She's Nora's mother. Not yours."

I cut him off, my eyes locked on Leila's bloodless face.

"She is mine."

Leila screamed like a woman unhinged. "Stop talking!"

I let out a quiet laugh, even as something inside my chest tore. "After her one-night stand, she gave birth to me and dumped me with my grandmother. She didn't marry Morgan Henson until the following year. It wasn't until Nora went missing at five that she brought me home as a replacement."

Leila's eyes went wide. She stared at me, stunned.

She hadn't expected me to know any of this.

Her composure shattered. She lashed out, shrieking: "Don't listen to her nonsense! After we kicked her out of the family, she lost her mind!"

"She's just a girl I adopted from an orphanage—we have the paperwork to prove it!"

After my grandmother died, I'd been sent to the orphanage.

I never had enough to eat. The older kids beat me daily. I was seven years old but so malnourished I could've passed for four. My body was covered in bruises, every shade of purple and green.

I still remembered the first time my mother saw those marks.

She cried the entire day.

I felt her guilt, her regret. After that, she tried to make up for everything at the Henson house. For years, I truly believed she loved me.

But that love was too fragile.

Too fragile to survive even a few whispered words from Nora.

"Mom." My voice was steady. "This is the last time I'll ever call you that. From here on out, you're on your own."

Leila couldn't meet my eyes.

I smiled bitterly at myself. What did it matter, saying all of this out loud? She didn't care. She never had. She had Nora, and that was enough.

Carter opened his mouth but said nothing.

The moment he wavered, Nora collapsed into his arms.