At the bottom, Linda had written:
Break her pride first. Everything else follows.
I sat back.
Sarah watched me carefully. “Mara?”
I smiled.
It surprised both of us.
“She got the first sentence wrong,” I said.
“What do you mean?”
I tapped the page. “Pride wasn’t the weakness. It was the armor.”
Linda’s arrest came two days later.
I was not there.
I watched from a distance only in the sense that Sarah called me after it happened and described the essentials. Linda had opened the door in pearls. She had asked if this was truly necessary. She had claimed heart trouble. She had accused me of manipulating the government. She had called Ryan her poor boy.
Then Agent Morales showed her the notebook sealed in an evidence bag.
Sarah said Linda stopped performing for exactly three seconds.
In those three seconds, everyone saw her.
Not mother.
Not victim.
