Chapter 12 - THE MONEY BETWEEN THEM
“Give them the files,” Santiago said.
Nora watched him.
“You need independent counsel for your own exposure.”
“Get me a name.”
“This could reach beyond your uncle’s theft.”
“I understand.”
“No,” she said. “You need to understand before you sign anything.”
She explained it plainly.
His companies.
His authorizations.
The work he had allowed other men to handle because distance made it easier not to ask questions.
Some conduct might have been hidden from him.
Some had not.
Ruby watched him across the room.
For the first time, he could not hide behind the difference between himself and Vincent.
Afterward, he found her outside under the building’s narrow awning.
Rain blew across the sidewalk.
“You should take Sophia somewhere else,” he said.
Ruby looked at him.
“Is that what she wants?”
“I’m trying to protect her.”
“Then ask her.”
He let out a tired breath.
“You always make it sound simple.”
“No. I make it sound like she’s a person.”
They stood without speaking.
Then Ruby said, “My daughter trusted me to keep her safe.”
“Ruby—”
“I can know I didn’t give her that medication and still hate that I left the room.”
Santiago looked at the rain.
“I trusted Vincent.”
“You also stopped listening to Sophia.”
“I know.”
“Knowing has to change something.”
That night, he sat beside his sister in the library.
He told her there could be searches, charges, and public attention.
He did not promise everything would be fine.
Sophia typed for a long time.
Then she turned the screen.
“Are you sorry because they might take things from you?”
He read it twice.
“No.”
She waited.
“I’m sorry because I kept giving you things when I should have given you choices.”
Sophia looked down.
Then she wrote:
“I want my own bank account. My own appointments. I want to go outside without asking three men.”
He nodded.
“And I want green curtains.”
A laugh escaped him before he could stop it.
It hurt.
“Green curtains.”
Across the room, Ruby quietly wiped her eyes.
The next morning, investigators executed warrants at Hale’s office and Eastmere’s records facility.
By noon, Vincent stopped answering calls.
By three, Tomas learned his driver had been sent home.
At four, Santiago received a text from an unknown number.
Your mother kept another copy. Find it before someone else does.
A photograph followed.
May you like
It showed the green sketchbook on Sophia’s desk.
Taken that morning.
