“Listen to me very carefully,” he whispered, adjusting his gold watch strap again.

“You don’t ask our accounting department questions about company land leases.”

“I was asking about my father’s estate records,” I said.

“You don’t have any estate records,” Alejandro said, his voice dropping to a razor edge.

“If you go poking around in corporate filings again, I’ll cut your monthly household allowance to zero by Monday morning.”

He slapped the folded paper against his palm, turned on his heel, and walked into the house, shutting the heavy oak fire door behind him.

My bedroom on the second floor was completely dark when I turned the key in the lock at nine o’clock.