"Jessica Ashfang, don't you dare." Kira's voice came out low and dangerous. "I know that guilty look. What do you know about my mother? Spill. Right now."
Jessica's breath hitched, her eyes dropping instantly to her lap. She began picking at a loose thread on her jeans, her silence shouting louder than any confession. "Please... don't make me, K," she whispered.
"Make you?" Kira leaned forward, her voice trembling with a mix of surprise and rising fury. "This is my life, Jess. My mother. The woman I've spent twenty years imagining. Tell me what you know."
Jessica looked up and exhaled shakily.
"Promise you won't spiral."
Kira stared at her best friend as if she had suddenly sprouted a second head. "How do you all know things about my own mother that I don't? Why is everyone hiding her from me? This feels like a betrayal, Jessica. You've known this entire time and stayed quiet?"
