She had built her whole scheme around witnesses — around respectable people who would later swear the old man had seemed unwell and the devoted wife had seemed concerned.

She needed an audience for the fraud to work.

And so I had simply let her gather her audience, and then, at the moment of her choosing, in the room of her choosing, I had shown that audience the truth.

Every person Dulce had invited to watch me be declared incompetent instead watched a recording of my wife tampering with my tea and calling me old man and naming the house as her prize.

Dr.

Danvers, who had come to lend his signature to a lie, stood witness to the truth instead.