Nadine's P.O.V.
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Not even a second after we'd all hung up, Esti called me.
"Hey."
"Hey," she said gently. "You wanna talk about it?"
"I don't know what to say Es," I replied. "I'm not even upset about Julia not being my mother, or what happened to my real mother. I'm upset about being lied to, about being so fragile that everyone was willing to go through all this bullsh.it just to spare my feelings. It's embarrassing and angering. And I feel like it's all my fault. If I'd just been stronger, just spoken up sooner, just... done something other than run away or keep quiet... things would be so different."
"That's not your fault, Naddy, that's Julia's," Esti stated sternly. "And it is perfectly okay to not be okay all the time. With a better environmen
