Reporting by Basil Wentworth.
Ani set down her phone and stared blankly in front of her, at a white antique wardrobe, for about ten minutes straight.
Ani had never been written about before. She’d never had any press, never been in any paper—not even the high school newspaper—never been talked about in any way. She’d had no desire for fame, and now she saw she was right for thinking that.
The main thing she was worried about was whether or not Grace and Kami were indeed questioning firing Ani. The rest, she could take. Because she knew the hose wasn’t her fault. It was some kind of freak accident that she in no way could have predicted. There wasn’t a checklist item for “secure the fountain hoses.” So she wasn’t upset at herself for that. But that Grace and Kami might believe this gossip rag, thatshe’ddone it on purpose, and that now they’d sack her? That would be bad.
She had to woman up, walk over to Kami, call a meeting with her and Grace, and talk things through transparently.
Okay. One step at a time.
It was nine a.m., and she heard voices outside, so she hoped she could find Kami there. Ani took a deep breath, her fingers trembling slightly as she buttoned her blouse and smoothed her hair. She put on a brave face and walked out the door.
She rounded the corner and froze. The entire family was there—Kami’s parents, sister, uncles, and aunts—seated around the table, their plates piled high with eggs, pastries, and fruit. The moment Ani appeared, the room fell silent.
Oh God.
She could feel the heat rising in her cheeks, her pulse quickening as she forced herself to take another step forward. “Good morning, I—” Ani said, her voice about as steady as a dinghy in a storm. “I just wanted to apologize for last night. Have you, by any chance, seen any articles about it? Because I’d like to, um, refute them.”
Kami caught Ani’s eyes for a second, then looked back down at a piece of mango she was cutting and kept going at it. Oh no, Kami was clearly pissed and blamed her. She believed the article. Dear God, this was it. She was going to be fired.
Kami’s mother narrowed her eyes at Ani. “Oh, we read it. I hadn’t put it together until they reported it. Ani…howcouldyou?”
“I—I didn’t—” Ani began, her vision clouding with sudden tears. How could she convince them? There was no way. They’d already made up their minds.
The silence in the room was the loudest sound she’d ever heard.
Then, suddenly she felt arms attack her from the side, and Ani startled, shocked that she was going to be dragged into a physical fight. But then she realized the arms were a desperate, hard hug, and someone was crying onto her shoulder. Galia?
Galia stared up at Ani, her usual sparkle gone and tears streaming down her face. She pulled away, wrapping her arms tightly around herself like she was trying to hold herself together. “Ani, I am so, so sorry,” Galia choked out.
Ani blinked, her mind struggling to catch up.
“It was me,” Galia said, at first to Ani, and then to the rest of the room, her words spilling out in a rush. “It was me! I cut the hose. With scissors. I didn’t know it would go crazy like that! I just thought maybe I could get it to spray Kami when she walked by. I’m so sorry.”
Ani froze. What the…Galia? No way. Galia was so fun, and yes, she was a little mischievous, but this? She wasn’t prone to full-on destruction. Ani tried to reconcile her ex’s younger sister, sarcastic and fun, seemingly carefree, with the one standing in front of her now, tears streaming down her face, shoulders hunched under the weight of her confession.
Ani didn’t appear to be the only one shocked by this. Kami and Galia’s entire family started talking at once, but Ani ignored them all, keeping her eyes only on Galia, who seemed to want to say more.
“Why?” Ani asked in a low voice.
“Because,” Galia said, suddenly angry, “Kami gets everything. She’s the prettiest; she’s the golden child. I’m the ugly one no one cares about. She bats her eyelashes, and whatever she wants, she gets. I just needed her…I just needed something to not be perfect for her, for once.”
Ani couldn’t speak. Galia was young, only seventeen, but this was still so wildly immature. And yet there was something in her words Ani could relate to. Talar, too, was the golden sister—effortlessly smart and successful, while Ani had felt like an afterthought, the one who had to work twice as hard for half the recognition. She understood that ache, that desperate need to be seen, to matter. But where Galia had lashed out, Ani had turned inward. She never would have resorted to sabotage. Hell, she planned her own sister’s wedding, even though the event had been painful for her in some ways. She felt more like she was losing a sister than gaining a brother. She felt she was behind and would never find love. But she gave Talar the best wedding possible despite everything.
“I didn’t think about you—” Galia said, her voice trembling as she fought back tears. “I didn’t think they’d blame you for it. I swear, it didn’t even cross my mind.”
That, Ani could believe. No one in the Mardian family seemed to think about anyone else but themselves. There was a lot of noise and talking among all the relatives, so Ani took a chance to ask Galia now, in a lower voice. “The flowers, the dress, the menus—was that you, too?”
Galia nodded her head sadly.
Fuck. “Galia.” Ani closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose, forcing herself to breathe through the frustration clawing its way up her throat. She was still the wedding planner, still a professional. And Galia was seventeen after all. “What you did weren’t harmless pranks—they were reckless and made a lot of people’s jobs harder. So much time and effort spent to undo them. I really, really wish you had thought twice before pulling something like this.”
Galia started to stammer something, when Kami brought over her phone. She seemed to have Grace on speaker. Ani held her breath. Hopefully Grace believed Galia? Or was Ani about to be fired anyway?
“Ani,” Grace said, seemingly calm except for a slight hint of irritation in her voice. “Sorry about that story this morning. I didn’t think about how the press would spin the whole ex-girlfriend thing when we hired you. I mean, I’ve never had press like this in my life, so I wasn’t thinking it was a possibility.”
“That’s, um, that’s okay,” Ani said. She wasn’t getting fired? It didn’t seem like it.
