Chapter 9 - A Voice from Before
We left the estate that night.
Dante offered another house.
I said no.
Luca booked two rooms at a hotel under my name, and I paid with my own card.
Dante didn’t argue.
That mattered more than the room would have.
While Sophia slept beside Mrs. Bell, I sat across from Dante and an attorney named Elaine Porter.
She arrived carrying a worn leather bag and the expression of someone who had waited a long time for a call she dreaded.
“Carmela missed our meeting,” she said. “The next morning, I learned she was dead.”
“Why didn’t you come to me?” Dante asked.
“She was investigating your family. I didn’t know whether that included you.”
He accepted that without defending himself.
Elaine connected the drive to a laptop.
Carmela’s voice filled the room.
Clear. Steady. Alive in a way photographs couldn’t manage.
“These are donations for children, Vittorio.”
“Lower your voice.”
“You put Marco’s name on the approvals.”
“Marco signs whatever is placed in front of him.”
“He didn’t sign these.”
A scrape. A chair moving.
Then Vittorio spoke again.
“You think Dante will believe you over me?”
“I think you’re afraid he might.”
Dante closed his eyes.
The recording continued.
Carmela named transfers and dates. Vittorio called them temporary loans. She called them theft.
Then came a sentence that made Elaine pause the recording.
“If you go to Porter, you’re putting everyone in danger.”
Nobody spoke for a moment.
Finally, Dante said, “That’s a threat.”
“It sounds like one,” Elaine answered. “But a recording alone won’t prove who ordered an ambush. We need the underlying records. We need to preserve this properly.”
She looked at him.
“And you need separate criminal counsel.”
Dante’s jaw tightened.
“I’m not the one who killed her.”
“I didn’t say you were.”
The room went quiet again.
I thought of Carmela’s letter.
Being innocent of this does not make you innocent of everything.
Elaine took notes, arranged copies, and called an investigator she trusted. She was careful about what she promised.
For the first time, somebody in Dante’s world was refusing to pretend certainty was the same as truth.
Just before midnight, his phone lit up.
Vittorio.
Dante answered.
His brother’s voice was calm.
“You’ve had a difficult day.”
“Yes.”
“I know you found something in Carmela’s room.”
Dante looked at Elaine.
May you like
Vittorio continued.
“Before you do anything foolish, ask Mrs. Bell where her grandson is.”
