Gilbert stood above me, twisting his wrist as if he were shaking off the distasteful act of watching it all unfold. "Why do you always insist on making things harder for yourself? If you’d just apologized, I would’ve pretended this never happened."
He sighed, as if inconvenienced by the whole ordeal. "Keenan wanted to go to the zoo, didn’t he? I’ll arrange it. And I’ll consider finding that expert you wanted so much. See? I can be reasonable."
I looked up at him through eyes blurred with rage, my voice trembling with fury. "You think this is something you can just fix? Dream on!"
Lucy scoffed from behind him, her smugness in full display. "See, Gilbert? I told you she was pretending. No mother who cared about her son would act like this. If her son was really sick, she’d be begging you for help, not talking back."
I glared at her, my face burning from the slap, but she flinched and took a step back. Her confidence was shaky now and even she knew she’d gone too far.