Mara’s jaw tightened.
“No,” I said softly. “Let him keep talking.”
Gloria added, “She needs one final lesson before we replace her.”
Vanessa laughed. “Evelyn will make a better wife.”
For the first time, Daniel sounded nervous. “Do not say her name.”
Too late.
I lifted the silver platter. Mara moved toward the hallway while Ruiz and two officers entered behind her.
“Ready?” she asked.
I looked at my reflection in the lid: shaken, marked, but no longer afraid.
“Serve them,” I said.
Part 3
I walked into the dining room with the platter in my hands. All three of them sat up straighter.
“Finally,” Daniel said. “Put it here.”
I set it in the middle of the table. Gloria breathed in. Vanessa lifted her fork.
Daniel raised the lid.
No steam curled upward. No noodles waited underneath.
The first photograph showed him kissing Evelyn outside a hotel. The second showed Gloria signing a forged invoice. Beneath them were bank statements, credit card records, and a tablet playing footage of Daniel punching me in the ribs.
