Zoe Ball loved holidays. All of them. From Arbor Day to Christmas, she turned every occasion into a production. But her absolute favorite was April Fools' Day.
Because on that day, she could torment me under the guise of celebration and no one would blink.
One year, she'd swapped the files on my work USB drive with videos of people trashing their bosses and coworkers. I nearly lost my job.
Another year, while I was away on a business trip, she called to tell me my parents had carbon monoxide poisoning and were being rushed to the ER. After I'd wired the money in a blind panic, she cheerfully announced, "April Fools!"
I'd raged at her before. But the angrier I got, the more she enjoyed it.
"April Fools' Day is for pranks. You can prank me too, you know. Why do you have to take everything so seriously?"
And my father-in-law, Silas Delgado, and my husband, James Delgado, always took her side. Every single time, they called me petty.
So it went.
Zoe's pranks escalated year after year, until today, when she sabotaged my brakes and sent my daughter and me into a crash.
And Silas and James couldn't have cared less about the truth. To them, I was nothing but a burden.