That just made Maria more suspicious. She had a gut feeling he was hiding something from her. A few times she tried to pry it out of Ella, but as soon as she brought it up, Ella would dodge the topic. That alone told Maria they were keeping some kind of secret.
"Wow, chatting with James again?" Rachel Collins snarked as she strolled in.
Maria instinctively turned off her screen and dropped the volume to the lowest setting. After weeks of getting caught by the crew, she'd trained herself to do it fast and subtle, so no one could notice.
Once she saw it was Rachel, Maria just gave her a glance, stayed cool, unlocked her phone like it was no big deal, and hung up the call. She then texted Ethan, "Mom’s got work now, talk later."
Without sparing another look at Rachel, she asked
