“From the first second.

Before the recordings, before the federal agents, before any of it.

I believed you.” Because that, in the end, was the fear the Prescotts had counted on most — not that Camila would be hurt, but that she would be disbelieved, that a powerful family’s word would drown out a wounded woman’s truth, the way it always had in that county.

They had built their whole kingdom on the certainty that no one would believe the people they crushed.