Shuyin's bruised hand trembled over the stark white pages. "No," she whispered, the word scraping her raw throat.
Yueling's sweet facade vanished in an instant, replaced by naked contempt. "You really don't understand your situation, do you?" she hissed, leaning in. "You have nothing. You are nothing."
Madam Chen's eyes turned to chips of ice. "Let me be perfectly clear, then," she said, her tone chillingly calm. "If you don't sign these papers right now, we will have your grandmother's body exhumed. We will demand a second, more... thorough autopsy. We have experts on retainers who will testify that the poison was administered by you over a much longer period. That it was cold, calculated premeditation. They will dig up that sweet old woman and cut her open again, and I will make sure every news outlet, every tabloid, has the most graphic pictures. Her memory will be forever tied to a scandalous, gruesome murder investigation."
