“I do,” she said with another sharklike smile. “I was informed of the theme of this competition, and I thought to myself, ‘Layla, you’re an old lady and you’ve lived a good long life, maybe it doesn’t matter as much if you find yourself taking a gamble and sailing closer to the wind than you usually would—maybe you’re old enough now to sail that close to the wind on purpose, just to see what happens, and if you forfeit something big in losing that wager, well! It’s been a good long life, hasn’t it?’
