“Emergency services.
What’s your location?”
The bedroom handle moved downward.
I kept my eyes on Elena as I gave the operator our address.
Her fingers tightened around my wrist, but she did not ask me to hang up.
She pulled the blanket higher over her shoulders and stared at the door.
Ricardo pushed it open without knocking.
The smile he had worn all evening vanished when he saw the old phone on the bed and the documents spread beside it.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
I turned the phone facedown so he could not see the active call.
“Talking to my wife.”
His gaze moved to Elena.
The change in his expression was immediate.
His jaw tightened, and his shoulders shifted forward.
Elena shrank against the headboard.
That reaction told me more than any confession could have.
Ricardo stepped into the room.
“Mom said you were upsetting her again.”
“Again?”
He realized too late what he had said.
Victoria appeared behind him, still carrying her champagne glass.
Her diamond bracelet caught the bedroom light as she surveyed the documents.
For half a second, fear crossed her face.
Then she smiled.
“You shouldn’t go through private papers,” she said.
“They contain my signature.”
“They concern the family.”
“I never signed them.”
Victoria took a slow sip of champagne.
“You were overseas.
Business could not stop simply because you were unavailable.”
I looked at Ricardo.
“So you signed my name?”
“Watch what you’re accusing me of.”
“Your corporation owns my house.”
“Our house,” Victoria corrected.
“This family helped you build everything you have.”
Elena made a small sound beside me.
Victoria’s eyes snapped toward her.
“You have caused enough trouble.”
I stood.
Ricardo moved between me and the door, confident that I would explode.
He wanted anger.
Anger would let him call me violent, unstable, dangerous from my time overseas.
He wanted a scene he could control.
I gave him nothing.
“Move,” I said.
He smiled again.
“Or what?”
A faint voice came through the phone on the bed, asking whether we were in immediate danger.
Victoria heard it.
Her glass stopped halfway to her mouth.
Ricardo lunged toward the phone.
I reached it first.
“Yes,” I told the operator.
“My wife has visible injuries.
