Chapter 14
The Last Twenty Minutes
The recorder wasn't a confession. Grace warned Alessandro not to pretend it was. It proved an argument, not a murder. But it gave Ortiz a time and place to investigate.
A recovered parking record showed Sofia had left the office nineteen minutes after speaking to Enzo. Jonah's photo showed possible tampering with the brakes. Investigators requested the original crash files and interviewed the retired officer who had marked the incident accidental.
Meanwhile, Bianca called Alessandro from an unfamiliar phone.
“I didn't know he threatened Sofia,” she said.
“Why should I believe you?”
“Because Enzo told me she'd been stealing from the trust. He said marrying you was the only way to clean it up.”
“And the child?”
Bianca hesitated. “He wanted you distracted. I thought if Livia looked awful at the wedding, you'd panic about the pictures and agree to send her away.”
Alessandro stood so quickly his chair scraped the floor. “You thought making her afraid was a strategy.”
Silence.
“You don't get to call what you did a misunderstanding,” he said. “Tell your lawyer everything. Ortiz will want to hear it.”
He ended the call before anger made him cruel.
That evening, Teresa brought Livia a soft pink hat. Livia touched it and pulled it on, then took it off again. “Can my hair be long for my birthday?”
“Not all the way,” Alessandro said, sitting beside her. “It grows slowly.”
She thought about that. “Can we have cake anyway?”
“We can have cake no matter what your hair looks like.”
Livia leaned against him. For the first time since the wedding, she fell asleep before asking whether Bianca was coming back.
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Then Grace texted: ENZO HAS REQUESTED A PRIVATE MEETING. HE SAYS HE HAS EVIDENCE THAT COULD PUT YOU IN PRISON.
