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“Still, you shouldn’t have posted it without my permission,” Hallie said.

She hoped the others were convinced by that, although Gigi obviously wasn’t.

“Are you sure that’s all it was?”Gigi asked.

“Yeah,” Hallie said, winking at Gigi and hoping she wouldn’t get too voluble about the information she already had.Hallie had all but confessed to Gigi that Luke had cheated on her.

“We’ll never understand it anyway,” Bob chimed in, “Those young people are all on TikTok and other virtual reality stuff.”

“Is this true?”Vivian asked, looking directly at Hallie.“Did you really have a fake relationship?”

Hallie gazed back at her, feeling trapped.Somehow she had been able to carry on this deception, but when asked directly, she couldn’t bring herself to lie.Everyone’s eyes stared into hers...

“Yes,” she said.“It’s true.”










Chapter 80: The Rights to the Ranch

“It started out as fakebecause I just wanted you to notice me,” Hallie went on, everyone’s eyes still on her.“I wanted you to give me a chance to do something useful around the ranch.I did good work, didn’t I?”

She felt like she was saying the wrong thing, but it seemed like anything she said at this point would only work against her.

“Terry, I can’t believe you ratted her out,” their daddy pronounced.

“You’re mad atme?”Terry exclaimed.

“I’m disappointed in both of you, but especially you, Hallie,” he replied, “You came up with this scheme just to make us think you’ve matured?Well, it shows exactly the opposite.”

There was so much Hallie wanted to say, but what would be the point?They would never see it from her perspective.

Her mama shook her head sadly.“I agree with your daddy: it shows a real lack of maturity.I just can’t believe you would do that, Hallie.”

“And you!You’re a menace to society,” Bob said pointing at Luke, “Did you know he unleashed a bear from the zoo?”

Gigi shook her head at him.“Not now, Bob.”

Terry’s husband didn’t have much to say, as usual.He just sat there open-mouthed and watched the chaos unfold.