"It''s already toote," Alex said in a toneyered with meaning as he looked at me. "She has already organized everything she knows and handed it over to the media."


    I jerked my head up in shock and nearly spilled my lemon water. What? Did she already expose everything? I wasn''t even prepared for this at all.


    Lexi was still as impulsive as ever!


    A wave of frustration surged inside me. I took a deep breath and forced myself to stay calm.


    What was done was done. Getting angry wouldn''t help. First, I needed to find out exactly what she had said.


    I set down my ss and picked up my phone, dialing Lexi''s number.


    After a few rings, a bright, sweet voice came through the receiver. "Hello? Serena? It''s me, Lexi."


    "It''s me." I tried to keep my voice steady. "Alex told me you''ve already spoken to the media."


    "Yeah." Lexi hesitated for a moment. "I just felt... like I had to do something."


    The second I heard her voice, I knew she had acted on impulse again just like before.


    I couldn''t even count how many times in the past she had done something reckless, and I was always the one who had to clean up the mess afterward.


    "Lexi..." I sighed while rubbing my temples as a headache crept in. "If you''re so sure about what you did, why do you sound nervous now?"


    "I''m not!" She immediately raised her voice with a hint of irritation in her tone. But just as quickly, she softened. "I just... I really felt like I needed to do something."


    "Okay, okay, you''re not nervous," I said, cating her before she got defensive again.


    "Now, tell me—what exactly did you tell the media reporters?"


    On the other end of the line, I heard some rustling, like the sound of fabric shifting.


    "I just got home," she exined. "Let me sit down first."


    "I just told them that Madam Burke suffered so much abuse from Mrs. Ashford Senior that she had a miscarriage. Then, your dad split from the family. Andter, because of Shirley, he was driven to his death from anger. And after all that, Mrs. Ashford Senior still kicked you and your mom out of the house..."


    A sharp chill shot up my spine. My breath hitched, and my grip on the phone tightened. No one should have known about these things except me and Mom.


    "You..." I sucked in a deep breath, trying to steady myself. "How do you know all of this?"


    Lexi stammered for a long moment before finally blurting out, "I-I heard it from my parents."


    I froze.


    Her parents?


    How would they know what happened in my family?


    "My dad used to work with your dad," she exined quickly. "They were really close, so... he knew some things about your family. After my parents got divorced, I moved away with my mom, and we lost touch. But when I saw the news online, I thought... maybe I could help."


    I let out a long sigh, muttered a quick thanks, and hung up the phone. To be


    honest, I didn''t even know how to react to her so-called "righteous act".


    Alex had been sitting across from me the whole time. When he saw me put down


    my phone, he finally asked, "So? What did she say?"


    I rubbed my forehead with


    exhaustion weighing on me. "She spilled everything-the abuse my


    pushed to his death, and how mom suffered, how my dad w


    grandmother threw us out in the end."


    Alex''s expression turned serious. "And... do you think it''ll help?" "It should... probably help."