I knocked once against Alice's door and waited.
Silence.
The corridor remained dim and quiet around me. Most of the mansion was only beginning to wake somewhere downstairs. Servants would have already completed the preparations for tonight's gathering.
Thursdays were always busy inside the estate. Politicians, businessmen, traffickers, senators, and criminals disguised as respectable men would arrive before evening, dressed in tailored suits and expensive watches. By midnight, half of them would be drunk enough to discuss things they shouldn't.
Then they'd all sleep in the rooms that my servants prepared for them. It was a risky business. To keep my kids safe, they were taken to my parents' place. Or they stayed in Doña Esperanza's house on the estate all day.
I knocked again.
Still
