Chapter 14 - No More Closed Doors
Dante didn’t look away.
“I wasn’t home.”
Beatrice’s smile sharpened.
“At a business meeting.”
“Yes.”
“You want everyone to believe you’re the good parent now?”
“No.”
That answer stopped her.
Dante sat across from her.
“I failed Elena.
I failed the boys after she died.
You don’t have to convince me.”
Marina watched Beatrice search his face for the old opening.
The shame she could press until he stopped asking questions.
He didn’t give it to her.
“Now open the case,” he said.
Their attorneys sat nearby.
The investigator observed with permission.
The meeting was being recorded.
Beatrice glanced at each of them.
“You’ve made this so ugly.”
Marina spoke before Dante could.
“A six-year-old thought his mother died because he wouldn’t go to sleep.
It was already ugly.”
Beatrice snapped the case open.
Bank statements.
Copies of checks.
Elena’s handwritten notes.
On top lay a letter addressed to Dante.
He reached for it, then waited while the investigator documented the contents.
Beatrice watched his hands.
“She was going to destroy me.”
Nobody answered.
“I borrowed the money.
I was going to put it back.”
“From the relief fund,” Dante said.
“She wouldn’t listen.”
Marina felt her chest tighten.
“Tell them about the lamp.”
Beatrice turned toward her.
“It fell.”
“During the argument?”
“She grabbed the case.”
“Whose case was it?”
Beatrice’s face flushed.
“Elena thought she could just hand me over.”
The room became very quiet.
Dante spoke slowly.
“Why didn’t you tell anyone where she was?”
“I thought she was behind me.”
“The driver saw you outside with the case.”
“I panicked.”
“And the locked door?”
“I didn’t know she’d try that exit.”
Marina looked at the woman who had let three little boys carry that sentence instead.
We killed our mother.
For eighteen months.
Beatrice began to cry.
“I lost my sister.”
Dante’s voice broke.
“And then you used her children to protect yourself.”
When the police arrived, Beatrice stood so quickly her chair scraped backward.
“Dante.”
He didn’t move.
“Think about the boys.”
“I am.”
As she was escorted into the hallway, Miguel appeared at the top of the stairs beside Rosa.
Beatrice looked up.
For one terrible second, Marina thought she would call to him.
Instead, Miguel spoke.
“Mom didn’t die because of us.”
Beatrice’s mouth trembled.
No answer came.
Miguel took Rosa’s hand.
Downstairs, Dante opened Elena’s letter.
May you like
The first line made him cover his face.
If anything happens, please don’t let our boys grow up thinking silence is love.
