My jaw tightened.
“But not with Elias’s baby.”
Rebecca’s posture changed almost imperceptibly.
I said nothing.
Brenda swallowed. “I let Cynthia think that because I was scared.”
“Scared of what?” I asked.
“Of her. Of Elias. Of what they’d do if they knew the truth.”
I almost laughed, but there was no humor in me.
“You expect me to believe you were protecting yourself by helping them plan to take my apartment?”
“No.” Brenda shook her head quickly. “No, I know how that sounds. I wasn’t helping. I was trying to understand how far Cynthia had gone.”
“You asked about the apartment.”
“Because Elias told me he had already put money into it. He said you tricked him into paying for a place you wouldn’t let him own.”
I stared at her.
“He said what?”
Brenda’s eyes filled, though she did not cry. “He told me you were secretive. That you had debts. That you used him. Cynthia said you were unstable, that you isolated him, that he felt trapped but was too kind to leave before the wedding.”
