Chapter 8
Maria blamed herself.
I stopped that first.
“If I had known where Luis hid it—”
“No.”
“Sophia—”
“No.”
I looked at her.
“They chose to hurt her.”
Vanessa laughed.
“Very comforting.”
I turned.
She continued.
“Tell Maria the truth.”
“What truth?”
“If she had cooperated, the girl would have eaten.”
Maria flinched.
Vanessa smiled.
“See? Choices.”
I stared at my fiancée.
“Starving a child is not a choice you give the mother.”
“Everything is a choice.”
There it was.
Her philosophy.
Cruelty repackaged as consequence.
The captured courier looked away.
Even he seemed sick of her.
I asked him:
“Who killed Luis?”
Grant laughed.
“Here we go.”
The courier hesitated.
“Grant was there.”
“Who else?”
Silence.
Vanessa’s face tightened.
I noticed.
“Who else?”
The courier looked at her.
Maria covered her mouth.
Vanessa exploded:
“He was already injured!”
Nobody had said Luis was injured.
The room went silent.
She heard herself.
Too late.
I stepped closer.
“Explain.”
Vanessa’s eyes hardened.
“Grant confronted him.”
“At Warehouse Nine.”
“Yes.”
“You were there.”
“Yes.”
Maria began crying.
“What did you do?”
Vanessa looked at her with contempt.
“Your husband attacked Grant.”
Maria shook her head.
“No.”
“He did.”
Grant added:
“He got brave.”
Vanessa smiled cruelly.
“Brave men leave widows too.”
Sophia looked up at Maria.
I felt rage move through the room.
“What happened?”
Vanessa sighed.
“Luis had the phone.”
“No.”
“He threatened to expose everything.”
“Meaning he threatened to tell me the truth.”
“Same thing.”
Grant interrupted:
“He ran.”
The courier looked at him.
“No, he didn’t.”
Grant turned.
The man continued.
“You locked the side door.”
Maria went pale.
Vanessa whispered:
“Shut up.”
The courier stared at the floor.
“Grant knocked Luis down.”
I asked:
“And?”
“He told Vanessa to leave.”
“Did she?”
“No.”
I looked at her.
The courier’s final words cut through the kitchen.
“She told Grant Luis had already chosen what happened to him.”
Maria made a broken sound.
Vanessa did not deny it.
May you like
And I finally knew Luis’s death had not been an accident.
It had been a punishment.
