Chapter 14 - The Man at the Gate
Ricardo wanted Arturo searched twice.
Arturo walked in carrying no weapon, only a sealed envelope.
He looked twenty years older than his photographs.
“Where is my grandson?” he asked.
Ricardo stepped between him and the stairs. “Start with Sofia.”
Arturo’s mouth tightened. “I loved my daughter.”
“People say that after doing terrible things all the time.”
Arturo looked at me. “You’re Evelyn’s daughter.”
I stood. “Apparently everyone knew my mother but me.”
He flinched.
Then he handed me the envelope.
Inside was a copy of my mother’s missing medical page.
Toxicology.
A sedative in her blood that had never been disclosed to our family.
My knees went weak.
“Who did this?”
Arturo said, “I don’t know. But Evelyn was helping Sofia prove that Marco was moving money for someone inside both families.”
Ricardo’s voice sharpened. “Both?”
Arturo nodded. “One Moretti. One Bellini.”
“Who on your side?”
Arturo’s eyes filled with something close to shame.
“My son.”
Sofia’s brother, Adrian Bellini.
A man who had spoken at her funeral about justice.
Arturo continued. “Adrian blamed Ricardo for everything. He believed if Sofia died, Leo would come back to our family.”
Ricardo took one step forward.
Victor blocked him.
Arturo raised both hands. “I came because Adrian disappeared this morning.”
“Where?”
Arturo looked toward Leo’s room.
May you like
Arturo did not ask Ricardo for forgiveness. That was the first thing about him I trusted. He admitted he had hated the marriage, had judged Sofia, and had used silence as punishment when she chose a life he could not control. Now his daughter was dead and his grandson was afraid of his own memories. Regret had arrived late, but at least he was finally willing to name it.
“He took a child’s passport from my safe.”
