Two hours later, Alvin arranged to meet his mother at a quiet diner downtown, away from the house, away from Veronica’s watchful hospitality.

And there, over coffee, he showed her the truth, pulling up on his tablet the record of the monthly four-thousand-dollar transfers he had been sending for a full year.

Carmen’s face drained of color as she looked at the numbers.

“Derek told us,” she said faintly, “that you were only sending a few hundred dollars a month.

To help with groceries.”

Alvin’s jaw tightened, but he kept his voice gentle for his mother’s sake, and pulled up the rest of it, the forensic trail Inez had begun to assemble.