Chapter 12 - Isabella’s Last Week
Police reopened no death case.
Peter explained it.
Marcus had tried to pressure Isabella into approving the waterfront sale before her death.
Camilla Bellini arranged the meeting.
Isabella refused.
FAILED meant the business approach failed.
Nothing more.
Isabella’s death remained what it had always been: a terrible accident.
The conspiracy came later.
But one question remained.
Why had Valentina married me after Isabella died if the original plan failed?
Marcus answered that too.
“Because your wife left Ruby the block,” he told prosecutors. “We needed proximity.”
Valentina gave a different story.
Then she claimed she genuinely loved me and wanted to abandon the plan.
“When?” the prosecutor asked.
Valentina said, “After Ethan started calling him Dad.”
The prosecutor showed her messages sent after that date.
Messages about Ruby.
Messages about Kessler.
Messages about Saint Catherine.
Valentina cried.
She had no answer.
The court granted me temporary guardianship of Ethan with oversight from the child advocate because no safe parent or relative was immediately available.
Valentina fought it.
Ethan did not.
He asked if he could keep his room.
“Yes.”
“Can Ruby keep hers?”
“Yes.”
“Can we still sit together at dinner?”
“Yes.”
He looked serious.
“Even if she sits by you?”
I smiled.
“Especially then.”
That evening, Teresa reset the birthday table.
No guests.
Just me, Ruby, Ethan, and her.
Ruby climbed into the chair beside mine.
Ethan sat on her other side.
We ate spaghetti because Ruby asked for it.
Halfway through dinner, she dropped a meatball on her dress.
She looked at me like she expected punishment.
I handed her a napkin.
“That’s what napkins are for.”
She smiled.
Then the front gate alarm sounded.
Nico checked the camera.
A black sedan waited outside.
Inside sat Camilla Bellini.
May you like
Valentina’s mother.
The woman the ledger said had died two years earlier.
