Chapter 7 - THE WOMAN WHO CAME BACK FROM THE DEAD
Gabriel stopped three feet from Sofia.
For a moment, neither of them looked like the people I had seen in photographs. He looked younger, stripped of the authority that usually protected him. She looked older than the woman in the footage, with a thin scar beneath her jaw and exhaustion in her eyes.
"You let me bury you," Gabriel said.
Sofia swallowed.
"I never asked you to."
"You disappeared. Your family held a funeral. I spent three years believing I had failed to protect you."
"You were supposed to believe that."
He flinched as if she had struck him.
Sofia looked at me.
"Rebecca told me you were brave. She said you would ask the questions everyone else was too afraid to ask."
"Why did my mother die?"
"Because she found the original records showing that Dominic Romano had been framed for stealing money from his own companies. The real thief was someone inside the family."
"Vittorio?"
Sofia shook her head.
"Vittorio helped move the money. He helped hide the evidence. But he wasn't the person who designed the scheme."
"Then who was?"
Sofia looked toward the marina entrance.
"Elena."
The name seemed to echo through the empty boathouse.
Gabriel shook his head.
"My mother protected this family."
"She protected her position in it," Sofia replied. "Those are not the same thing."
She explained that Elena had controlled the household accounts for years, using her authority to move money through shell companies. Dominic had discovered the irregularities and planned to expose them. Before he could, he died unexpectedly.
Elena claimed his death had been natural.
But Sofia had found correspondence suggesting that he had been preparing to meet investigators.
Rebecca had discovered the same records and agreed to help Sofia deliver them to federal authorities.
"On the night I disappeared," Sofia said, "I was supposed to meet Rebecca at the marina. Instead, Elena arrived."
Gabriel's hands curled into fists.
"What happened?"
"She told me Rebecca had been killed. She said she had evidence that you would be implicated in the money laundering if I went to the police. She showed me documents with your signature."
"Forged signatures."
"I know that now."
Sofia had fled because Elena threatened to make Gabriel appear responsible for the crimes. The supposed body recovered after the boating accident had been misidentified, allowing Elena to declare Sofia dead and close the investigation before anyone could question the evidence.
"Why come back now?" I asked.
"Because Elena learned you had found the ledger. She knows the original records still exist, and she knows Rebecca's daughter can identify them."
I stared at her.
"Where are the original records?"
Sofia reached into her coat and produced a small brass key.
"Not in the house. Not anymore."
She gave it to me.
"Your mother hid the originals somewhere Elena would never search."
"Where?"
"Inside the place she believed was safest."
I thought of my father's house, the sewing box, and the recording device. I thought of the old photographs my father had kept for decades.
Then I remembered something my mother used to say whenever I asked why she had so few possessions.
The things worth keeping are the things nobody thinks to look for.
"The chapel," I whispered.
Gabriel turned toward me.
"My mother used to take me to a little chapel near the river. It was the only place she said she could think clearly."
Sofia nodded.
"Rebecca hid a box there."
Before we could leave, headlights swept across the boathouse windows.
Three black vehicles pulled into the marina.
Gabriel drew me behind a concrete pillar as men stepped out.
Vittorio emerged from the lead vehicle.
He wasn't alone.
Elena stood beside him, dressed in a cream coat, her expression composed and almost sorrowful.
"Gabriel," she called. "Come out. This has gone far enough."
Sofia closed her eyes.
"She followed us."
Gabriel stepped into the open, keeping himself between Elena and the two of us.
"You told me Sofia was dead."
Elena's gaze moved to the woman beside me.
"She should have stayed dead."
For the first time, there was no pretense of affection in her voice.
Vittorio raised a hand, and the men spread out around the boathouse.
Elena looked at me.
"Give me the key, Catherine."
I tightened my grip around it.
"No."
Her smile returned, thin and cold.
"Then your father will pay for your stubbornness."
My phone vibrated.
A message from an unknown number appeared on the screen.
It contained a live photograph of my father sitting in a chair inside an unfamiliar room.
Beneath it were six words.
Bring the key, or he dies.
Gabriel saw the message.
His face became terrifyingly calm.
Elena mistook that calmness for surrender.
She held out her hand.
"Choose wisely, darling."
Gabriel looked at me.
Then he turned toward his mother.
May you like
"You should have killed me when you had the chance."
And the lights went out.
