Vianne's mind kept spiraling around the events of the day before. She left the gun near Alex's corpse and the knife near Rowan as well; she hoped that by staging that they had killed each other amidst an argument, the police wouldn't think to find a third person. Luckily, the rain had erased her tire tracks and cleaned the dirt off of them as well, and because she wore her gloves, they wouldn't be able to find any of her DNA on either weapon. But as officer Diaz and Navarro spoke of their recent findings to both Dante's family and her parents in the cramped living room of her house, she couldn't help but feel paranoid.

"We were able to scan through Dante's call history through government records, and we found he called a number numerous times throughout the week," Cesar said, his eyes falling onto Vianne, "and we traced them to a woman named Aliza Taylor. Do any of you know this woman?"

Vianne shook her head, her expression contorted into bewilderment. "Aliza Taylor? I don't know anyone by that name."

Cesar glanced at Antonio for a mere second before continuing his analysis. "I see. We checked the roster of employees at the car dealership and found no one of that name, so we can assume his relationship to Aliza is a personal one. Perhaps she was one of his former classmates? Old work friend?"

Karla bit her plum-colored lips in deep contemplation, glancing to Stefano to see if he had recognized the name as well. "I've never heard of Aliza before, sorry. Maybe he met her just recently? I mean, do you know what their conversations were about?"

Antonio strolled across the fireplace, hands tucked into his pockets as he met Vianne's cautious stare. "We don't record conversations, Mrs. Sanders. All we know is that he called her numerous times," he stopped abruptly before the clock resting on the mantle, "Vianne, what do you think of his relationship with Aliza?"

Vianne simply shrugged, stripping her stare to the floor. "I don't know."

Antonio nodded as his eyes glazed over everyone, as if he was suspicious of all of them. He cleared his throat, stepping closer to Vianne. "I'd like to speak with you alone, if you don't mind."

Vianne nodded, swallowing hard as she stood up from her seat on the sofa. "No, I don't mind."

She led both Antonio and Cesar into the kitchen to engage in a private discussion, and she gestured with her hand for them to sit down but they politely refused.

"Would you say..." Antonio licked over his lips, "would you say that your marriage with Dante was satisfying?"

"Satisfying?" Vianne echoed, "sure, yes. But when he started drinking, we grew further apart."

"Further apart? What did that look like exactly?" Cesar inquired. Vianne bit the inside of her cheek, hands clasped in front of her as she looked from Antonio to Cesar. Outside, the rain had grown harsh, their shattered bodies being pulled by gravity and sharpening like bullets over Hood River. The thudding of the rain had heightened Vianne's nerves, and she hid her shaking hands by crossing her arms over her abdomen.

"He would often isolate himself in his room or..." she paused, brows creased, "or leave late at night and come back in the mornings."

"So Sunday morning when you noticed he hadn't returned, you assumed he'd come back eventually? Is that why you waited so long to report a missing person?" Antonio questioned, his voice rough as his mind worked at impossible speeds.

"Yes, I waited because I thought he'd come back. I assumed he only left sometimes to go get drinks at the bar. Although, I remember at one point he told me that he stayed over at his parent's house one night when I asked where he went."  Vianne responded.

Cesar gave Antonio a secret look before moving slyly to the living room to question Dante's parents, and both Antonio and Vianne watched silently as he left. Antonio cleared his throat again, digging his hands into his pockets.

"I'm assuming with this new information that you've connected some points, right?" Antonio murmured, his expression dipped in pity. His brows were furrowed as his warm eyes examined Vianne's expression. A few moments passed as he patiently waited for her reaction, but Vianne only stared down at the floor with an empty expression. She swallowed hard before finally locking eyes with Antonio.

"He was cheating on me, wasn't he?" Vianne whispered, biting the inside of her cheek. Antonio was silent, staring down at her with a  poignant expression.

"I would assume so. We have yet to question Aliza Taylor, and we'll do so immediately after our conversation with your family is over."

"Why didn't you go talk with her first before questioning my family?"

Antonio sighed.  "We wanted to ask you all first to see if you knew her to make things more efficient. I didn't want to jump to conclusions so quickly, Vianne. I gave Dante the benefit of the doubt."   

Vianne nodded as Cesar came back into the room with a perplexed expression. "Karla and Stefano said he never spent the night with them before. They hadn't even spoken with him in over a month."

Antonio nodded, replacing the pity he had displayed before Vianne with a stern, determined look. "We better go, Mrs. Torres-Sanders. We'll keep in touch with you."

The officers turned away to say goodbye to the others before entering the hailing rain, and Vianne was left alone in the kitchen with her skin igniting into cold fire. She swallowed hard, hands clammy as she looked back to Karla and Stefano's dark expressions upon the notion that Dante had cheated. She stepped cautiously into the living room, glancing to her parents who openly expressed their bitter feelings for everyone to see on their faces.

Carefully, she sat down at her previous spot while everyone stared solemnly at the fire shivering in the hearth, it's orange-red tongues illuminating a warm, suspenseful tone over the darkness of the room. Silence wafted across the air with the only sound shattering its fragile body being the soft ticks of Dante's clock. It was as if Dante, too, was in the room with them. Vianne studied Stefano as he watched its hands move around the circle, his eyes only watering at the mere thought of Dante.

After several minutes, Luciana was the first to break the uncomfortable silence. "So Dante was fired from work for violence, had been drinking alcohol and disappearing all day, and on top of that, he cheated on Vianne. He's...a mess. I'm glad he's not around my daughter right now."

Karla's eyes widened and turned cynical. "What did you say about my son? How could you be so quick to turn on him? For God's sake, he's missing!"

"He's probably hung over in an alley right now!" Luciana said, eyes sharpening. Her body quivered and her skin boiled at the thought of Dante potentially hurting Vianne. Karla stood from her seat, the bun of curls on her head bouncing as she pointed her finger at Luciana.

"Don't," her voice shook as she began to sob, expression contorted and tears falling helplessly down her face, "my son is the victim here! I can't believe you're painting him out to be the bad guy!"

"Vianne," Vincent said harshly, his eyes narrowed, "did Dante ever hurt you?"

"Jesus Christ," Stefano muttered, shaking his head as he looked from his wife to Vianne's parents, "now you're accusing my son of being an abuser? What's the matter with you people?"

Vianne watched both families argue idly, eyes dark despite the glow of the fire; oddly, she couldn't seem to feel the warmth radiating from the golden-hued flames. The light couldn't do anything to thaw the ice climbing across her body, and it unnerved her to think that she would always be this numb. Vianne shuddered in her seat, blinking as she tilted her head towards the fire, pleading with it to melt all of the frost sliding across her skin and seeping into her bones. She didn't want to be trapped in a never ending feud between her parents and Dante's family, and the more she heard insults being hurled at one another, the more she seemed to drift further away from reality.

Dante deserves this, she thought, her hand slowly extending across the arm of the chair, her fingers stretching as if she could grasp the warmth bundled within the fireplace, but his family will never understand that - they will forever side with a monster. So what does that make them? Good people? Bad?

"Vianne."

She was brought back to reality as she turned her head to her dad. Everyone had fallen silent as they watched Vianne, their gazes wavering with all sorts of emotions: pity, anger, sorrow. Vianne swallowed nervously, eyes wide as she waited for her dad to continue.

"What do you think of all this? Do you really think Dante cheated? Do you agree that he's been behaving this way?"

Vianne bit hard into her bottom lip, listening to the ticks of the clock. "Well," she muttered, tapping her fingers against the arm of the chair, "I don't know if he cheated. I guess only Aliza Taylor would know, right? So please, could everyone just stop fighting?"

Karla wiped at her eyes, glancing to Luciana for a quick moment before settling her gaze on Vianne. "Why aren't you angry?"

Vianne's heart stopped. "What?"

"I asked why aren't you angry?" Karla spat, tears falling profusely down her face, "you just heard your husband might've cheated and that's all you say? This entire day you've just been so...so calm. I don't get it! Do you know something about him that we all don't?"

"Everyone has their own way of grieving," Luciana said in defense of Vianne, "you shouldn't be so quick to judge."

"Look who's talking!" Karla replied, crossing her arms over her stomach. Arguments filled the room once more as Vianne simply looked back to the dancing flames. The buzzing of their voices reverberated across the walls, insults ricocheting and shattering everyone to pieces. Nothing would be the same between their families; only pain would follow in their footsteps, walls of anger being built between them until only anathemas remained forever trapped in their hearts. And Vianne knew full well that the divide between such tight-knit families had been split apart by her - the disappearance of Dante had broken them. And she found it somewhat infuriating how this would be the thing to cleave them all apart; not the fact that she had been tormented by Dante, but because he had disappeared. It took Dante to go missing to find out that he was indeed a horrible person.

Vianne only shook her head, watching them argue with distaste. This is the beginning of the end.