Handcuffs closed around her wrists.
Two hundred guests watched.
Katherine screamed.
“You cannot do this!”
Nobody answered.
“Do you know who I am?”
Monica stood at the bottom of the stairs.
Calm.
Katherine saw her.
Really saw her.
For the first time.
Not the uniform.
Not the woman kneeling on marble.
Not someone she could slap without consequences.
Monica.
Katherine’s mouth opened.
“You…”
Monica said nothing.
Katherine’s voice cracked.
“You lied.”
Monica finally answered.
“No.”
Her voice was quiet.
“You never asked who I was.”
Katherine twisted toward her husband.
“Harold!”
He stood at the top of the stairs.
Pale.
“Tell them.”
Harold said nothing.
“Harold!”
Still nothing.
Then he turned.
And walked inside.
Exactly as he had done for years whenever cruelty occurred in his house.
Look away.
Pretend silence meant innocence.
That would not save him.
Not this time.
Inside the mansion, Ruth and Diane watched through the kitchen window.
