Seeing Emerald, she hurried her pace, her face streaked with tears. "You don't know how I suffered last night!" she proclaimed. "Darcy locked me in a basement. There were rats down there. If you'd gotten here a minute later, I would've been scared to death!" She extended her arm, craving a hug.

Emerald quickly dodged, a look of obvious disgust spreading over her face. "You are disgusting. Go wash up."

Delia's face screwed up into a defeated pout, but Emerald was already walking out. She ordered Filipe to mobilize a car and went herself, leaving her child's scrapes to the domestics.

More than an hour had already elapsed when she...