The silence broke in the most unexpected way. A new student arrived at BNHS. Her name was Sofia, and she was Hector Alcantara's cousin, sent from Manila to stay with his family after some unspecified "trouble" back in the city. She was everything Hector wasn't: sharp, observant, and utterly bored with the posturing of small-town royalty.
She found me at the library, not by accident. "You're JM, right?" she said, sliding into the chair opposite me. She didn't wait for an answer. "My cousin is an idiot. But my uncle? He's not. And he's really unhappy right now."
My blood ran cold. I said nothing.
She leaned in, her voice dropping. "I don't know what you did, and I don't care. I just know the old guard is panicking. They're making phone calls at all hours. The 'security consultant' from my grandfather's era is back in town." She let the term hang in the air. Security consultant. Arturo Vega. "Just watch your back. This isn't a game to them." She got up and left as quickly as she arrived, leaving behind a warning and a tantalizing hint: there was dissent within the Alcantara family itself.