THE BLACK SWAN GALA

"Because if you didn't know—if you believed that it was Allan—well, you're not very good at what you do, after all, are you?"

"Put the bone down, Rommel," Santina says calmly.

"What?"

"The bone. Put it down." More firmly this time.

Rommel looks down at the femur in his hand as though he is perplexed at how it got there.

Then, he takes a few steps closer to Santina with the bone outstretched.

Santina steels herself to parry a possible blow when she hears Mikael's voice at the door.

"Pancit canton and—" the other party announces ceremoniously, holding his arms up with plastic bags of takeout in his hands.

But at the sight of Rommel holding the bone to Santina's face, his expression changes, and he raises his voice sternly.

"What the hell is going on here?"