She was not shouting.

That was what held the room.

A woman screaming can be dismissed as hysterical, and Damson would have preferred it — he had spent five years teaching her that her feelings were an overreaction, and a scene would have proven his case.

But Aracely was not making a scene.

She was stating facts, in an even voice, in front of witnesses, and the facts were damning precisely because they were delivered without heat.

Everyone in earshot could do the arithmetic she was laying out.