Victoria's transformation happened almost instantly, so quickly that Daniel found himself questioning what he'd actually witnessed in that first unguarded moment before she noticed him watching. Her posture softened, her raised hand lowering the duster casually to her side as though it had never been anything more than an innocent household chore. "Daniel, darling, you're home early," she said again, crossing the foyer toward him with practiced grace, her smile bright and warm in a way that felt suddenly, unmistakably rehearsed. She reached for his arm, attempting to guide him gently away from the scene behind her, toward the staircase, toward anywhere else in the house that wasn't this foyer and the two kneeling women within it. "I wasn't expecting you until tonight," she continued smoothly, her voice light and casual, as though nothing at all unusual had been happening moments before his arrival. Daniel didn't move. His eyes remained fixed on his grandmother, on the raw distress still visible across her tear-streaked face, on the way Sofia refused to meet his gaze at all, staring instead at the marble floor with an expression of carefully controlled fear. "What's going on here?" he asked, his voice quiet but carrying an edge that made Victoria's smile falter just slightly at the corners. "Nothing," she said quickly, too quickly, the practiced warmth in her voice straining under the weight of his continued silence. "Grandma had a small fall, that's all. Sofia and I were just helping her up." Daniel's gaze moved deliberately back to his grandmother, who was already shaking her head slowly, her lips trembling as she visibly gathered the courage to contradict the story Victoria had just offered.