I haven’t replied.”

“Why would she text you something that obvious?”

“She didn’t.

The line about the deed was on the picture she forwarded.

Looks like somebody sent her an image with a caption and she passed it on without looking closely.”

Opal showed me the message again.

The second line had clearly been cropped from a different conversation.

Monica’s eagerness to intimidate me had made her careless.

“Could it be fake?” I asked.

“Certainly.

That’s why we’re going to verify it, not build a castle out of one text.”

Her calmness made me want to cry.

In prison every rumor had felt like a threat.

Opal was offering something I hadn’t known I needed: permission to find out slowly.