“Anna? Anna, are you okay?”
I looked up as Barnett approached me. The concern in his tone and facial expression touched me, but I couldn’t stop the tears from flowing down my cheeks.
“No,” I choked out.
He wrapped me up in his arms and pulled me close.
“I’m so sorry,” he said, rubbing my back. “That was a low blow of him, bringing up your brothers like that.”
“Why do people even think that?” I sobbed into his chest. “There’s no way that their deaths could have been my fault.”
“People just love to sensationalize everything—”
“But why? Am I such a bad person that people would assume that even as a child I would do something so horrible?”
“No, no, of course not.”
“Then why?”
“Because tabloid reporters are jackasses just looking to make a quick buck, no matter who it hur
