The day after Daphne Caruana Galizia was murdered, the narrator, a 13-year-old living in Żebbuġ, Malta, attended an English Literature class at 8am. The teacher, Mrs Cutajar, read Act 5 of Macbeth as the narrator arrived late, greeted by the smell of bleach. Whispers and laughter erupted from the back of the class, centered on the murder. When the narrator pressed Maya, a classmate from a Labour Party family, to explain, Maya smirked and said, "They blew up that woman with the big mouth." The teacher tried to stop the discussion, citing a no-politics rule, but Maya insisted, "She deserved to die for speaking against him. Joseph is the best," referring to then-Prime Minister Joseph Muscat. The narrator countered, "She was a mother, you know," but Maya shrugged, "If she wanted to live, she should’ve shut up sooner." The teacher eventually shrieked for silence, redirecting attention to an upcoming test.