She lowered her hand from her mouth, slowly, and stared at her little brother with an expression of absolute astonishment, this ten-year-old who had, without warning, stood up and shielded her with the one weapon no one had known he was holding.

In that moment the whole shape of the evening had inverted.

Maya had come to dinner glowing and been reduced to tears.

And now, because of her little brother and her father, she was watching the person who had done it to her scramble in panic across a wine-stained tablecloth, exposed, cornered, and finished.

Chapter 10 — Show Me

“He’s lying!” Gwen cried, changing tactics, her voice climbing toward hysteria.

“He’s making it up because he’s mad at me!