Rodrigo looked down at his phone, then back at the gates as they rolled open, and for the first time that night, he looked afraid.
He stood barefoot on the front steps in his party clothes, one hand still half-raised from the violence he had used on me, the other gripping a phone that had just delivered the first truth of his marriage.
The message had come from my attorney.
Occupancy rights revoked pending immediate property review.
Freeze all discretionary family accounts.
Security en route.
He stared at it as if the words might rearrange themselves into something that still favored him.
They did not.
