Omniscient’s POV
The evening sun melted behind the rooftops, casting an amber hue across the strip mall parking lot. A silver Honda CR-V sat idling a few spaces away from El Toro’s, a modest but lively Mexican fast food joint tucked between a nail salon and a discount shoe store.
Inside the SUV, Aurora Keating sat rigidly in the driver’s seat, her knuckles white against the steering wheel. Her deep brown eyes, lined with faint exhaustion, were locked on the window of El Toro’s.
Inside, two women sat at the corner window seat, laughing over burritos and dripping tacos. One of them was Isabelle Ashbourne—regal in posture, radiant with a softness in her expression Aurora found nauseating.
She wore a silky cream blouse tucked into high-waisted jeans, her hair caught in a glossy, effortl
