"I am not," Ella yelled back, chin tipping defiantly with the words.
"He messaged me out of the blue, wanting me to say you were threatening me, so you'd give him the money," she said, tripping over her words in her hurry. "I told him I would do no such thing. I told him I'd ask you about it, and that you would give it back if you had it. And I told him it was his own fault for trying to kill you in the first place, but that you didn't want anyone hurt," she said, face flushed with the tumble of words, which were too loud and too desperate.
She was loud enough that anyone in the Deluxes could hear her, could see the vines along the walls, could see Rosalie and Ella fighting in the hall. She was getting angry now, which helped her be less scared. "Do you have the money he mentioned? Because he's desperate, and he's going to get dangerous if the girl gets hurt."
She thought about Daniel and Rosalie at the hospital with the girl, and she wondered if all this was too little, too late.