With Rose on one side of me and Isabella on the other, I felt like a shield—an invisible barrier between two women who had suffered more than most, and the predator that still prowled in the form of Lupe.
There was a heaviness in the room, a tightness in the air as if the walls themselves were holding their breath. My own pulse had steadied, not from peace, but from the weight of duty settling firmly on my shoulders.
When my mother mentioned the possibility of a fight between Lupe and Isabella, I felt Isabella flinch beside me. It wasn’t dramatic—it was a subtle, almost imperceptible shiver that ran down her frame. But I noticed. Just like I had noticed the same thing in my father’s study when Lupe raised her voice.
Fear like that didn’t come from nowhere.
Beside me, I heard Rose whisp
