Chapter 330

• VALENTINA
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• The small room smelled of stale air, fear-sweat, and something faintly metallic that reminded me too much of my mother’s blood on the kitchen floor. I stood frozen in the doorway, the heavy metal still cool under my fingers where I had yanked it open.
• The woman—Cassio’s wife—stared at me with eyes that held equal parts exhaustion and accusation. Her arms were wrapped protectively around the little girl, who couldn’t have been more than eight, her small body trembling as she pressed her face into her mother’s chest.