This half-hearted act was making it look like I was the bad guy, so I had to hold back my anger. "Or what?" I asked, trying not to snap.
Florence looked down, biting her lip. "Or... or I’ll feel guilty."
I couldn’t hold back a dry laugh. "Guilty? Then why don’t you feel guilty about twisting the truth, making me look like the villain and saying I forced you into the utility room?"
Florence didn’t respond, just kept crying, head down. Jada, on the other hand, was getting more pissed off by the second.
"You dare to threaten your sister in front of me and your father?" she hissed. "If we weren’t home, I shudder to think how you’d treat her!"
Wyatt, looking equally pissed now, jumped in. "Florence is a good kid, there’s no way she’d be stuck in a utility room. Who would choose to leave a perfectly good bedroom and sleep in that dingy room? You’ve gotta explain this, or—"
I couldn’t be bothered to keep explaining. I just pointed to the surveillance camera nearby. "You’ve only been here a week, so you probably haven’t noticed the cameras all over the house. Why don’t we just check the footage and see if I really made you sleep in there?"
Jada and Wyatt exchanged a glance, clearly getting angrier. "Fine. Let’s watch it and once we have proof, you won’t be able to talk your way out of this."
But as soon as Florence heard "surveillance camera," her face went completely pale, like she’d seen a ghost. She started shaking, but Jada and Wyatt didn’t notice. They just yanked Florence and me toward the monitoring room downstairs.
Before we even reached the stairs, Florence suddenly dropped to her knees.
"Mom, Dad, my sister really didn’t know," she said, voice shaking. "She gave me a nice room. But... I’ve been through a lot and I always felt like I didn’t deserve it. So... I just secretly went to the utility room to sleep when everyone was asleep."
Jada and Wyatt stopped dead in their tracks, clearly stunned. After a long, awkward silence, Wyatt spoke. "Then why did you say Susanna made you sleep in the utility room?"
Florence shook her head, her voice small. "I didn’t. I saw how upset you both were and I got scared, so I couldn’t say anything. I’ve just been through too much... I’m too scared to speak up. It’s all my fault."
I stood there, my face icy, waiting for Jada and Wyatt to apologize, but instead, they just helped Florence up from the floor, looking at her with pity.
"My baby’s been through so much out there and we can’t change the past. We’ll make it up to you," Jada said, her voice full of sympathy.
Just like that, they all hugged each other and walked off, leaving Anna and me standing there, still processing. I was honestly a bit confused. Had all the kindness they’d shown me over the years really been fake?
Anna, clearly irritated, spoke up. "Miss Florence is a piece of work. When she came home last week, you told them you wanted to move to another villa and she was crying, saying, 'I came to join this family, not to break it up,' so you stayed. Now look at this!"
She shook her head, clearly frustrated. "And your parents are totally taking her side. It’s obvious she’s making stuff up." Anna paused, then looked at me. "What’s your plan now, miss?"
I gave a thin smile, but it didn’t reach my eyes. "Florence just got back and they feel guilty. I’m not gonna stay mad. They were good to me before... We’ll just see how things go."
Anna let out a sigh. "Yeah, they were always good to you before."
