Chapter 6 - THE MAN MY MOTHER HAD BEEN RUNNING FROM
Dante’s guards surrounded Paul before anyone else moved.
He did not resist.
That bothered me.
Guilty men should resist.
At least that was what movies taught you.
Paul simply looked tired.
“Sit down,” Dante said.
Paul remained standing.
“I’d rather not.”
Dante’s voice became colder.
“That wasn’t a request.”
Paul sat.
Carlo looked between them.
“You took my car the night Sofia died.”
Paul said nothing.
Carlo stepped closer.
“You told me you had gone home.”
“I lied.”
Carlo’s composure finally cracked.
“Why?”
Paul looked at Dante.
“Because your daughter was going to destroy all of us.”
Dante crossed the room.
Carlo blocked him.
Not to protect Paul.
To protect Dante from doing something he could not undo.
“You touch him now,” Carlo said, “and we lose whatever truth he has.”
Dante stared at him.
Then stepped back.
I understood suddenly how this family had survived so long.
Even their restraint felt violent.
I stood near Leo’s playpen.
He was chewing on the corner of a soft cloth book.
Completely unaware that half the adults in the room were unraveling.
“Who are you?” I asked Paul.
He looked at me.
“Paul Mercer.”
The name meant nothing.
Dante answered.
“He ran security for my father.”
“And then?”
“For me.”
My stomach dropped.
The trusted third person.
The security phrase.
Dante had said three people knew it.
Him.
Sofia.
And—
“You knew the phrase,” I said.
Paul’s expression changed.
“You took Leo.”
Carlo turned.
“I took Leo.”
“With a phrase Paul could have given you.”
Carlo looked at Paul.
Paul looked away.
Dante understood.
“You’ve been manipulating both sides.”
Paul sighed.
“Not everything is a conspiracy, Dante.”
“No. Sometimes it is simply betrayal.”
Paul almost smiled.
“I taught you that word.”
“You taught me too many things.”
Carlo said, “The car.”
Paul’s jaw tightened.
“Tell us.”
Paul leaned back.
“Sofia took copies of financial records from Carlo’s office.”
“Copies?” Carlo asked.
“The originals were still there.”
Carlo stared.
“You knew?”
“I found the copier log.”
“You told me she stole the ledger.”
“I needed you angry enough to follow her.”
I saw the moment Carlo understood he had been used.
“She met Marisol,” Paul continued. “Then she drove toward Dante’s house.”
Dante’s face tightened.
“She was coming to me.”
“Yes.”
“For help?”
“To tell you everything.”
Paul looked at him without sympathy.
“Your daughter believed you had become something better than your father.”
Dante absorbed the insult without moving.
“Was she wrong?”
Paul’s eyes shifted.
That small movement told me more than his answer would have.
I stepped closer.
“What happened?”
“I tried to stop her.”
“How?”
“I pulled alongside her.”
“In Carlo’s car.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because she recognized my personal car.”
“Then?”
“She wouldn’t stop.”
Carlo whispered, “Paul.”
“She accelerated.”
“So did you,” I said.
Paul looked at me.
“You weren’t there.”
“My mother was.”
That landed.
Paul’s face tightened.
Finally.
“Marisol saw you.”
“She saw two cars.”
“She hid part of Carlo’s car.”
“She found debris.”
Dante said, “Did you hit Sofia’s car?”
Paul’s silence stretched.
Leo babbled behind me.
A ridiculous sweet sound.
Dante closed his eyes briefly.
Then asked again.
“Did you hit my daughter’s car?”
“I touched the rear quarter panel.”
Carlo swore.
Paul’s voice sharpened.
“I was trying to force her to stop.”
“You ran her off the road.”
“No.”
“She died.”
“That was never the plan!”
There.
Not a confession offered easily.
A truth dragged out by pressure.
Paul stood.
The guards moved.
He raised both hands.
“I was trying to stop the car. She swerved. She hit the barrier.”
Dante’s face had gone gray.
“And you left her there.”
“No.”
Paul swallowed.
“I went down.”
Dante stared.
“She was alive?”
Silence.
My skin prickled.
“She was alive,” Carlo repeated.
Paul sat again.
“She was conscious.”
Dante lunged.
Carlo and two guards caught him.
Leo started crying.
I moved immediately.
I picked him up.
He buried his face against my neck.
“Enough!”
My voice shocked everyone.
Even Dante.
“Not in front of him.”
Dante stopped fighting.
Paul looked at Leo.
Something like shame appeared.
“Sofia told me to save him.”
I held the baby tighter.
“What?”
“She knew she was hurt badly. She kept saying Leo’s name.”
Dante sank into a chair.
Paul looked toward the floor.
“I called an ambulance anonymously.”
“And the ledger?” Carlo asked.
“I took it from the car.”
Dante lifted his head.
“Where is it?”
“Gone.”
“Destroyed?”
“No.”
Everyone stared at him.
Paul gave a humorless laugh.
“That’s why Marisol is still alive.”
I felt Leo’s heartbeat against my chest.
“What does my mother have to do with it?”
“She arrived before I could leave.”
My knees weakened.
“She saw Sofia?”
“Yes.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
The room tilted.
My mother had held this alone for eight months.
Paul continued.
“Sofia gave Marisol something through the broken window.”
“What?”
“I never saw.”
Dante whispered, “The ledger.”
“Maybe.”
Carlo looked furious now.
“You told me Sofia died instantly.”
“I needed you to believe there was nothing she could have said.”
“You let me mourn my niece while wondering if I caused her death.”
Paul’s face hardened.
“You did help cause it. If you hadn’t hidden money, she never would have had anything to find.”
Carlo flinched.
There was no clean person in the room.
That truth sat heavier than anything else.
I looked at Dante.
“Did you know about Carlo’s accounts?”
“No.”
Paul laughed.
“Ask a better question.”
I turned back.
“What better question?”
“Ask Dante what those routes originally paid for.”
Dante stared at Paul.
“Don’t.”
Paul ignored him.
“Judges. Cops. Port officials. Protection.”
“I know what dirty money is.”
“No.”
Paul looked at me.
“Protection for Marisol.”
I stopped breathing.
Dante stood slowly.
“Enough.”
Paul smiled faintly.
“Thirty-one years ago, after she disappeared, Dante spent millions trying to make sure nobody found her before he did.”
I looked at Dante.
“You said you thought we were dead.”
“I did.”
“Then why protect us?”
“Because for several months, I didn’t believe the fire.”
Paul continued before Dante could answer.
“He threatened half the eastern seaboard looking for your mother.”
Dante’s face hardened.
“That is not something I’m proud of.”
“And eventually?” I asked.
He looked at me.
“I found the officer who signed the identification report.”
“Who was it?”
Paul answered.
“Me.”
Every head turned.
Carlo stared at him.
“You?”
Paul nodded.
“I told Dante the bodies were Marisol and the baby.”
My stomach twisted.
Dante’s voice was almost inaudible.
“You were working with my father.”
“Yes.”
“Carlo staged the fire, but you made me believe it.”
“Yes.”
Carlo stepped back as if the room itself had shifted.
Paul looked at me.
“Your mother was right about the dragons, Alina. But she misunderstood one thing.”
“What?”
“The tattoo wasn’t her greatest danger.”
His gaze moved to Dante.
Then Carlo.
“Men who believe they are protecting family will justify almost anything.”
I hated him.
Mostly because he was right.
Leo began playing with my necklace.
His fingers found the blue star.
He calmed immediately.
Dante watched us.
I could see grief and hope fighting in him.
I did not know which I feared more.
“Where is my mother?” I asked Paul.
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“No.”
He leaned forward.
“But I know what she took from Sofia.”
My heart hammered.
“What?”
Paul looked at the rosary wrapped around my wrist.
“That isn’t Marisol’s rosary.”
I looked down.
“Yes, it is.”
“No.”
He shook his head.
“Marisol’s had a silver cross.”
I stared at the small brass crucifix.
Then at Dante.
He went pale.
“My mother’s second rosary,” he said.
“What?”
Dante stepped closer.
“That cross belonged to Sofia.”
My fingers shook.
I turned it over.
There was a seam along the back I had never noticed.
Carlo whispered, “Open it.”
My thumbnail slipped beneath the edge.
The brass back popped loose.
Something tiny fell into my palm.
Not paper.
A small locker key.
A metal tag hung from it.
One number.
March seventeenth.
My birthday.
Dante looked at me.
Paul closed his eyes.
May you like
And Carlo whispered the words that changed our next move entirely.
“Your mother didn’t run without leaving you a way to find her.”
