Chapter 11 - ISABELLA’S LAST ORDER
Victor sat down.
“I followed Sofia because your mother asked me to scare her.”
Raffaele stood across from him.
“How?”
“Box her in. Force her to stop. Take the evidence.”
“And you hit her.”
“Yes.”
“Knowing her brakes were gone?”
“No. I swear.”
Marcus interrupted.
“He’s lying.”
Victor turned.
“I didn’t even know you were there until I saw your Jaguar.”
Marcus shut up.
Victor continued.
“Sofia was already struggling when I caught up.”
Raffaele’s fists tightened.
“I tried to pull alongside her. She was screaming through the window.”
“What was she saying?”
Victor looked ashamed.
“Lucy.”
Raffaele closed his eyes.
“She kept saying she had to get home to her baby.”
The words nearly destroyed him.
Victor continued.
“I hit the back of her car once.”
“Once?”
“To spin her toward the shoulder.”
“And instead?”
“She broke through the rail.”
Silence.
“You watched her go over?”
“Yes.”
“And you left her there?”
Victor shook his head.
“No. I went down.”
Raffaele stared.
“What?”
“The car hadn’t caught fire yet.”
Victor’s voice began shaking.
“Sofia was alive.”
Celeste sobbed.
Raffaele couldn’t speak.
Victor looked directly at him.
“She was trapped. Bleeding. But alive.”
Raffaele grabbed the edge of the desk.
“Did you call an ambulance?”
Victor looked away.
“Did you call an ambulance?”
“No.”
Raffaele crossed the room and struck him.
Victor fell sideways.
Dante didn’t stop him.
Raffaele grabbed Victor by the collar.
“My wife was alive?”
Victor whispered, “Yes.”
“And you left her?”
“I called your mother.”
Raffaele froze.
“What did she say?”
Victor’s face crumpled.
“She asked whether Sofia could still talk.”
The room became unbearable.
Raffaele released him.
Victor continued.
“I said yes.”
“What did my mother say?”
Victor began crying.
A seventy-year-old man.
A man who had once broken another man’s jaw with a wrench.
Crying.
“She said if Sofia talked, everything would be exposed.”
Raffaele whispered, “What did she tell you to do?”
Victor couldn’t answer.
Raffaele screamed.
“What did she tell you?”
Victor looked at him.
“She told me to leave.”
Silence.
“And you did?”
“Yes.”
“You left her alive in that car?”
“Yes.”
Victor’s voice cracked.
“I walked back up the hill.”
Raffaele’s eyes burned.
“Then the car caught fire.”
Victor nodded.
Raffaele turned away because if he kept looking at the man, somebody was going to die in that room.
But Victor wasn’t finished.
“Raff.”
Raffaele didn’t turn.
“There’s something else.”
“What?”
“When I reached the road…”
Victor swallowed.
“Your mother was there.”
Raffaele slowly turned.
“What?”
“In another car.”
Everybody stared.
Victor continued.
“She had followed me.”
Raffaele’s face went blank.
“She went down to Sofia.”
“And?”
May you like
Victor whispered:
“When Isabella came back up the hill, Sofia’s car was already burning.”
