Alice’s smile did not falter, but her jaw clenched, and she stared at him with a guarded but unchanged expression.
“Where did you hear that?” she asked.
Stefan shrugged his shoulders.
“A few times when they thought I was still asleep, I heard some nurses talking,” he said. “They said that she put us all in danger.”
Alice turned away from the door and moved back to the chair. She sat down again and took a deep breath.
“Well,” she sighed. “They shouldn’t have been talking about that, even if they thought you were asleep.”
“Why?” he asked. “Was it supposed to be a secret?”
“It’s complicated,” Alice said. “There are sides to every story and a spin to every tale. But gossip always leads to muddied waters and half-truths.”
“Will you tell me the whole truth?” he asked, sitting forward with a serious look. “Do people really think that she did that? Do you?”
