Chapter 16 - My Father's Letter
I opened the letter with shaking hands.
My father had been dead for eight years.
His handwriting made him feel suddenly alive.
Adrian,
If you are reading this, then Vittoria has found what I hid, or I have failed to stop her.
I read the next lines twice.
My father had discovered that my mother and Dante were secretly moving family money into private companies. When he confronted them, Vittoria insisted she was protecting the organization from his "weakness." He planned to remove both of them from control.
Three days later, his brakes failed on a mountain road.
He had written the letter the night before the crash.
He knew he might be killed.
He had left the safe hidden inside the old medical chamber because my mother hated the room and never entered it.
Until Grace forced her to.
At the bottom, one sentence was underlined.
Power will make your mother call cruelty love. Do not believe her.
I lowered the paper.
Grace sat beside me on the chapel steps with Noah asleep in her arms.
"He knew," I said.
"He suspected."
"And I spent eight years thinking his death was my fault because we argued the night before he left."
Grace leaned her shoulder against mine.
"That's what people like Vittoria do. They don't just hurt you. They teach you to carry the blame for them."
A black sedan appeared at the bottom of the hill.
Marco raised his weapon.
The car stopped fifty yards away.
My mother stepped out alone.
No gun visible.
No coat.
Smoke from the burning wing moved behind her like a storm cloud.
"Stay here," I told Grace.
She rolled her eyes but stayed with Noah.
I walked halfway down the hill.
My mother stopped ten feet away.
"You found his letter," she said.
"You knew it existed?"
"I knew your father enjoyed dramatic insurance policies."
"Did you kill him?"
She looked toward the chapel.
"Your father was going to destroy everything."
"That's not an answer."
"He wanted to walk away. Turn legitimate. Sell properties. Close routes. Give money to charities so he could die pretending to be clean."
"Did you kill him?"
She finally looked at me.
"I saved what he built."
There it was.
Not a confession in legal language.
Something worse.
A justification.
"And Grace?"
"She found records she wasn't supposed to see."
"So you imprisoned her."
"I gave her choices."
I laughed in disbelief.
"Chains aren't choices."
Her mouth tightened.
"You were supposed to understand."
"I understand perfectly."
Behind me, a car door opened.
Grace's voice carried down the hill.
"Good. Because the police understand too."
My mother turned.
Unmarked federal vehicles were coming through the front gate.
Her face changed for the first time that morning.
She was afraid.
Then she smiled at me.
May you like
"You think I came back to surrender?"
A second later, the ground beneath us shook.
