Chương 8
“Three,” he said.
“Still three.”
Elena handed him the fork.
Matteo took one bite, then another. Halfway through the third, he pushed the plate away.
“All done.”
“You asked for cake all morning,” Luca said.
“All done.”
Elena wiped cream from the corner of his mouth. “That is allowed.”
Luca stared at her bruised wrist.
“Did Sofia plan to leave me?”
Elena’s hand stopped.
“She spoke to a lawyer,” he said.
“She spoke to several lawyers.”
“For divorce?”
“Yes.”
The answer struck with less force than Salvatore’s version because Elena did not soften it.
“Did you help her?”
“Yes.”
“Where was she going?”
“She had not decided.”
“Was she taking Matteo?”
“She wanted temporary custody until she knew whether the company was dangerous.”
“The company was not inside this house.”
“Elena’s eyes lifted. “Angelo was.”
Matteo dropped his fork. It hit the plate and slid onto the floor.
Luca picked it up.
“You knew she was leaving and said nothing.”
“She asked me not to.”
“She was my wife.”
“She was my friend.”
“You worked for me.”
“I worked in your house. That is not the same thing.”
He placed the fork on the tray with more control than necessary.
“What else?”
Elena looked at Matteo.
“Everything,” Luca said.
“We should not do this in front of him.”
“He understands when people lie.”
“He also understands fear.”
Luca pushed the wheelchair toward the playroom. Matteo objected until Luca promised to sit with him. They spent twenty minutes arranging wooden animals in a line on the rug. Matteo insisted the lion could not stand beside the zebra because “they don’t talk.” Luca asked which animals did talk. Matteo placed the stuffed lion beside a wooden bear and seemed satisfied.
Elena waited in the doorway.
When Matteo grew tired, the nurse returned and took him upstairs. Luca remained on the floor after they left. One knee of his black trousers had collected dust.
Elena sat on a low chair rather than the sofa.
“Sofia believed someone was watching her,” she said. “She found the transmitter in her dressing room before I did. She left it in place because she wanted them to think she had noticed nothing.”
“Who installed it?”
“She didn’t know.”
“Angelo.”
“Probably.”
“Probably is not enough.”
“No.”
“She gave you the letter four days before she died.”
“Yes.”
“What happened that night?”
Elena folded her hands. Her thumb pressed into her palm again.
“She called me from the car.”
“What time?”
“A little after eight.”
“Police records show no outgoing call.”
“She used the prepaid phone.”
“The one in the box?”
“Yes.”
“What did she say?”
“That Salvatore had asked to meet her.”
“Where?”
“At the old family office in Yonkers.”
“She was driving north when she crashed.”
“He changed the location.”
“To where?”
“She didn’t tell me.”
“Why not?”
“She said the less I knew, the safer I was.”
Luca watched her thumb dig harder into her palm.
“What are you not telling me?”
She stopped the movement.
“Elena.”
Her gaze went to the wooden animals on the rug.
“I called Salvatore that afternoon.”
The room became quiet enough that Luca heard the nurse’s footsteps above them.
“Why?”
“He had my mother’s address.”
“That is not an answer.”
“He sent a man to her apartment. Not to hurt her. To let me know he could.”
“When?”
“Two days before Sofia died.”
“What did he want?”
“To know where Sofia kept the documents.”
“What did you tell him?”
“Nothing.”
Luca waited.
Elena swallowed.
“He asked where she was going Thursday evening.”
Luca stood.
She did not move.
“What did you tell him?”
“I said she had a board meeting.”
“That was public.”
“He asked whether she planned to go anywhere first.”
The air seemed to leave the room.
“What did you tell him?”
“I said she might stop at the greenhouse to see me.”
Luca stared.
“She didn’t,” Elena said quickly. “She changed her plan. I did not know she was meeting Salvatore. I did not give him the road. I did not give him a time.”
“You told him where she might be.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I was afraid.”
He took one step toward her.
She remained seated.
“Was Sofia in the greenhouse?”
“Not that day.”
“Did Salvatore know she had given you the letter?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe he threatened your mother, questioned you about Sofia’s movements, and then simply forgot you existed?”
“No.”
“Then why are you still alive?”
The question hurt her. He saw it.
“I don’t know.”
“Maybe because you kept quiet.”
“Yes.”
“You helped him.”
“I may have.”
“You helped kill her.”
Her face lost color, but she did not defend herself.
Luca turned away before the part of him shaped by Salvatore could act.
He crossed to the window and pressed both hands against the sill. Outside, a gardener wrapped burlap around a shrub as if the season required nothing more urgent. A delivery driver carried boxes toward the service entrance. The world continued performing small tasks.
Behind him, Elena said, “I have asked myself that every day.”
He looked back.
Tears stood in her eyes but did not fall.
“I wanted to tell you after the funeral. Then Angelo searched my room. Your father paid my mother’s rent for a year without asking. You were drinking. You fired three nurses because they moved Sofia’s things. You slept with a gun beneath Matteo’s crib.”
“I was protecting him.”
“You were frightening everyone.”
He opened his mouth.
She continued before he could speak.
“Sofia was right about what you would do. You would have taken the letter to Salvatore. He would have told you she was leaving, that she was unstable, that I was manipulating you. You would have believed him because the alternative was that your father killed your wife and you had built your life inside his approval.”
“Get out.”
Elena’s expression barely changed.
“Leave the house.”
“What about Matteo?”
May you like
“You do not say his name.”
“He needs—”
