Cruelty depends on darkness — on the comfortable certainty that no one important is watching, that the story can always be spun later, that it is her word against theirs.

Rafaela had simply turned on the lights.

And in the light, there was nothing to spin.

There was only a woman’s voice through a cracked window, and a daughter’s laughter, and a husband’s silence, playing back at full volume in the room where they’d expected to host a celebration.

Chapter 14 — The Room Erupts

The room broke into chaos.