Chapter 6 - THE FATHER WHO LIEDVanessa stood so quickly that her chair fell backward.
“No.”
Sofia did not move.
“Sit down.”
“No.”
“Vanessa—”
“You abandoned me for eleven years and now you’re accusing Dad of murder?”
“I’m telling you what happened.”
“You don’t get to tell me anything.”
Vanessa grabbed her coat.
Luca blocked the door.
“Move.”
“No.”
“Luca.”
“If your father had something to do with my mother’s death, I need to know.”
Vanessa stared at him.
“And if he did?”
Luca said nothing.
That frightened her more than any answer could have.
Sofia opened the file box.
Inside were bank records, photographs, newspaper clippings, and handwritten notes.
She removed an old police report.
“Your mother and I met on October 17, 2000.”
Luca’s face tightened.
The date his mother died.
“We had enough evidence to expose the accounts.”
“What happened?”
“We left the greenhouse at 10:40.”
“You were driving?”
“Yes.”
“Where were you going?”
“To the FBI field office.”
Vanessa whispered:
“You were turning Dad in?”
“I was trying to protect you.”
“By destroying our family?”
“Your father had already destroyed it.”
Vanessa flinched.
Sofia continued.
“A black sedan followed us.”
“Who was driving?”
“I couldn’t see.”
“But you think it was Vanessa’s father?”
“I know it was.”
“How?”
Sofia reached into the box.
She removed a photograph.
The sedan.
Its license plate visible.
Registered to Bellini Holdings.
Vanessa stared at it.
“No.”
“He followed us.”
“What happened?”
“He hit the rear bumper twice.”
Sofia’s voice shook.
“On the bridge, he hit us again.”
Luca’s face became stone.
“The car went through the barrier.”
“Yes.”
“My mother?”
“She was alive.”
Luca leaned forward.
Sofia began crying.
“She was trapped.”
“What did you do?”
“I tried.”
Her hands trembled.
“I swear to you, Luca, I tried.”
He said nothing.
“I broke the driver’s window. I climbed out. I tried opening her door.”
Sofia covered her face.
“But the car shifted.”
Vanessa whispered:
“Mom.”
“The current pulled it deeper.”
Sofia looked at Luca.
“Your mother told me to leave.”
He stared at her.
“She said your name.”
His jaw trembled.
“She said, ‘Tell Luca I wasn’t afraid.’”
Luca looked away.
I saw him wipe one eye.
Only once.
Sofia continued.
“Then the car went under.”
Nobody spoke for a long time.
Finally Luca asked:
“And my father?”
“He found me at the hospital.”
“What did he say?”
“That if I told anyone what happened, Vanessa would disappear next.”
Vanessa closed her eyes.
“My father threatened me?”
Sofia nodded.
“I believed him.”
“Why would Dad kill Luca’s mother?”
“Because she had the records.”
Luca looked at the microfilm.
“But the records survived.”
“Yes.”
“Did my father know?”
“No.”
“How did you know where they were?”
“I didn’t.”
Sofia looked toward Viktor.
“Anna never told me.”
Luca frowned.
“My mother’s name was Anna.”
Viktor nodded.
Sofia continued.
“She told us separately enough to protect the evidence.”
Luca stared at the old gardener.
“She trusted you.”
“Yes.”
“Then why did you disappear?”
Viktor’s expression darkened.
“Because someone came to my house three days after the funeral.”
“Who?”
“A man I didn’t know.”
“What did he want?”
“The greenhouse key.”
Luca looked at the brass key.
“And?”
“I told him I had thrown it into the lake.”
“What happened?”
Viktor rolled up his sleeve.
A long scar ran across his forearm.
“He broke my arm.”
I stared at him.
The old scars.
His hands.
All this time, I had assumed they came from gardening.
“After that,” Viktor said, “I left the country.”
Luca looked toward Vanessa.
“Your father is still alive.”
She nodded.
“Then we ask him.”
Vanessa’s face hardened.
“No.”
Luca frowned.
“I’m going alone.”
“Why?”
“Because he’s my father.”
“And my mother died because of him.”
“Which is exactly why you are not going.”
Luca stepped toward her.
Vanessa did not back down.
For once, I saw something in her I respected.
Not kindness.
Courage.
She picked up her phone.
“What are you doing?”
“Calling him.”
Her father answered on the second ring.
“Vanessa?”
She closed her eyes.
“Dad.”
“Sweetheart, what’s wrong?”
Vanessa looked at Sofia.
Then at Luca.
“Mom is sitting across from me.”
Silence.
Not confusion.
Not disbelief.
Silence.
Vanessa’s expression shattered.
“You knew.”
Her father exhaled.
“Vanessa—”
“You knew she was alive.”
“Listen to me carefully.”
“No.”
“Get away from that house.”
She froze.
“How do you know where I am?”
May you like
The porch light went out.
Then every window in the farmhouse exploded.
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