Steve reminded himself that she had killed his father as he followed Paul’s instructions on how to dispose of her body. The whole house reeked as the chemicals dissolved flesh and bone into thick fluid that oozed down the drain.

Elena stood outside the doorway. “How much longer?”

“Few hours,” Steve replied.

“And then we do Gillis the same way?”

Steve nodded.

“Fucking gold digger.” She laughed humorlessly. “He thought we were going to let him take everything.”

“It wasn’t ours yet,” Steve said.

“It was going to be,” Elena snapped. “Don’t defend him.”

“I’m not. Just… clarifying.”

“You’re not developing a conscience, are you?”

He rubbed his eyes. “You make it sound like we did something wrong.”

“We killed two people.”

“They deserved it.”

Elena nodded. “Damn right. They killed Dad.”

Steve bit back a reply. She had never even met their father; he had gone off to war when she was a baby.

“Let’s wait in the kitchen,” he said. Elena nodded.

Steve eyed the disintegrating body warily. “Goodbye, Mom.”