Chapter 14 - The Lie Matteo Saved for Last
Matteo sat behind reinforced glass.
Burns covered one side of his neck.
He still managed to look arrogant.
I picked up the phone.
“So this is what you have left?”
He smiled.
“Truth.”
“You wouldn’t recognize it.”
“Ask your wife.”
“She isn’t my wife anymore.”
That wiped the smile from his face for half a second.
I had filed for divorce that morning.
Valentina had not contested it.
Matteo leaned closer.
“Isabella survived the first explosion.”
“I know.”
“She made the recording.”
“I know.”
“She was alive when I left.”
That was new.
I stared at him.
“You expect me to believe you walked away?”
“I wanted the records.”
“Not her.”
“You attacked her.”
“Yes.”
He said it without shame.
“But I did not kill her.”
“Then who did?”
He smiled again.
“You already know.”
I stood.
He slapped one hand against the glass.
“Sit down.”
I stopped.
“There was a second recording.”
I slowly turned back.
“What?”
“Isabella always made copies.”
“Where?”
“Ask Valentina.”
I left without another word.
Valentina was being held in a separate facility.
She looked smaller when I saw her.
No silk robe.
No diamonds.
No perfectly controlled smile.
Just a tired woman who had spent fifteen years living inside a lie.
I sat across from her.
“Did you kill Isabella?”
She began crying immediately.
That was answer enough to terrify me.
“I didn’t mean to.”
My stomach turned.
“What did you do?”
“She was hurt.”
“She was bleeding.”
“Matteo had already gone downstairs.”
“She grabbed me.”
“She said she was going to tell you everything.”
“And?”
“I panicked.”
“What did you do?”
Valentina looked at her hands.
“I pushed her away.”
I said nothing.
“She fell.”
“Where?”
“Down the service stairs.”
My jaw locked.
“I heard her hit the floor.”
“Did you check her?”
“Yes.”
“Was she alive?”
Valentina covered her face.
“Yes.”
I stared at her in disbelief.
“You left her alive?”
“The fire was spreading.”
“I was scared.”
“You were always scared.”
My voice shook.
“And everyone else paid for it.”
She sobbed.
“I went back.”
“When?”
“Minutes later.”
“But Elena had already moved her.”
I frowned.
“What?”
“I never found Isabella’s body.”
“Then how did she die?”
Valentina looked up.
“I don’t know.”
That changed everything.
We had assumed Isabella died later from injuries.
But nobody had actually seen her die.
Elena had only found the recordings.
The family had buried a body recovered from the fire.
The remains had been identified through jewelry and hospital records.
Records controlled by Matteo.
I called the prosecutor.
“Exhume Isabella’s grave.”
There was silence.
Then he said,
“You think the body isn’t hers.”
“I think nothing connected to that night should be trusted.”
Three days later, the grave was opened.
The remains belonged to a woman.
But not Isabella Rossi.
The DNA did not match Marco.
It did not match Daniel.
It did not match any member of Isabella’s family.
Marco stared at the report.
“If that isn’t my mother…”
His voice disappeared.
Nico finished the thought.
“Then where is she?”
The answer arrived that evening.
Sophia walked into my office carrying an old photograph.
“I know this woman.”
I turned.
The photograph showed Isabella twelve years earlier.
Sophia pointed to her face.
“She came to our school last year.”
My heart stopped.
“What?”
“She used another name.”
“What name?”
Sophia looked at Marco.
“Mrs. Bell.”
Marco slowly stood.
Sophia continued.
“She watched him from across the street.”
“More than once.”
Isabella Rossi had not died twelve years earlier.
May you like
She had been watching her son.
And she was still alive.
