Chapter 18 · Dubai Ticket

"They voided it, Lila." Joy's voice cracked through the phone before I even got it to my ear. "The whole contract. Stamped VOID this morning."

My hand was still shaking around Kuya Ben's ledger page, the one with the forged stamp bleeding through the paper like a bruise. I hadn't even set it down before Joy's name lit up my screen.

"Slow down," I said, pressing the phone tighter against my ear like that would make her words less true. "What do you mean voided?"

"I mean I don't have a job in Dubai anymore. I mean the recruiter called me a liability. Those are his words, Lila. Liability." She was crying now, the kind of crying that comes out sideways, half laughing because it's too big to just be sad. "Somebody sent them something. About you."

My stomach dropped through the floor. "About me."

"A picture. Of you holding some ledger. With a note that says your sister steals from hotels and you should ask yourself what she's hiding in Manila before you hire her family.