Chapter 12 - MATTEO'S VERSION
"You don't have to see him," Rios told Mara.
"I know. I want to hear the truth from someone who was there."
Matteo sat in a hospital room with a bandage above his eyebrow.
"Your mother discovered the fake invoices," Matteo began. "Enzo ordered Daniel to erase them. Daniel kept copies instead."
"And you?"
"I drove the car to Pier Nine. I thought we'd frighten Isabella into handing over the film."
He stopped when he saw Mara's face.
"Don't ask me to feel better about that," she said. "Keep talking."
According to Matteo, Carlo arrived carrying Alessandro's sealed case. Inside were company records proving the stolen transfers. Isabella demanded that Carlo turn the documents over to prosecutors. Enzo came in through the loading door with Vittorio Sterling. Someone fired a gun. Carlo ordered Matteo to take Isabella away, but she was already dying.
"Who shot her?" Mara asked.
"I couldn't see from the loading gate. I heard Enzo yell at Vittorio. Then Carlo threatened to kill us if we didn't keep quiet."
"So you put her beneath the chapel?"
Tears rolled down Matteo's cheeks. "I did. With Enzo watching. I helped build the lie."
"What happened to Daniel?"
"He wouldn't accept their story. He went to the police. His brakes failed two days later. I don't know who arranged it."
Rios told him his statement could be tested against the records and evidence. Nothing he said would earn automatic immunity.
Before Mara left, Matteo caught her attention.
"Victoria didn't know all of this when you arrived. She found her father's files last summer. Enzo promised her the estate if she kept you quiet until the wedding."
Mara felt sick. For nearly two years she had served meals to a woman who eventually discovered exactly who she was and chose cruelty anyway.
May you like
Outside the room, Rios took a call and stiffened.
"Sterling's lawyers just moved to seal the original port records," she said. "They know we're close."
