Chapter 9 - THE TAPE IN THE MUSIC BOX
Giovanni searched every room of the estate for Teresa.
Nothing.
No forced exit.
No blood.
Only her shoes remained near the shattered window.
Clarissa returned to the blue music box while everyone else searched outside.
She noticed the velvet lining was thicker on one side.
Beneath it was a second memory card.
Giovanni inserted it into an offline laptop.
A video of Elena appeared.
She was sitting in a hotel room on Cayo Lucero with the curtains closed.
"Giovanni, if our children found this, I need you to forgive them before you ask questions."
He lowered his eyes.
Elena continued.
"I sent them away because I believed someone would use my funeral to gather everyone in one place."
Giovanni looked toward the broken window.
She had predicted it.
"Marco is alive, but he is not innocent."
The room went quiet.
"He disappeared because he discovered our father's secret accounts and tried to take control of them."
Elena said Marco later became trapped by the same people he tried to cheat.
She had gone to the island to bring him home in exchange for evidence.
Then her expression hardened.
"But someone followed me from California."
The camera shifted.
A blurred reflection appeared in the hotel mirror behind her.
Giovanni enlarged the frame.
Elena's recorded face looked thinner than Giovanni remembered from that week, and for the first time he noticed how carefully she had hidden the tremor in her hands.
Clarissa began crying when Elena said their names.
Emilio turned away, ashamed that he had spent the funeral flight blaming his mother for making them chase secrets.
Giovanni understood that every one of them had been angry at the only person still trying to protect them.
May you like
The person watching Elena wore Luca's distinctive silver watch.
Giovanni slowly turned toward his oldest friend.
