8
EXHAUSTED AFTER HER non-date with Jake, Elena barely had time to kick off her shoes and slip off her dress before she fell into bed. It was only nine o’clock, but she’d hardly slept the night before. However, she hadn’t been asleep long when her phone buzzed on the pillow next to her. She ignored it.
It buzzed again.
“Better not be Jake,” she muttered, fumbling in the dark. Squinting against the screen’s light, she saw a message pop up.
Mum: Are you awake, sweetie?
Elena: I am now.
Mum: Ok, I’m calling you…
A few seconds later, the phone rang. “What’s up, Mum?”
A silence ensued, and Elena thought she could hear her mother sniffing as though she were crying. “Mum? Are you there?” She bolted upright in bed. What’s wrong?
Honey Eaton was the stable rock of the family, and Elena cou
