Chapter 16 - The Woman Behind the GateVivian remembered the sedan.
Rosa driving.
The service gate opening at 4:26 a.m.
She had always believed Rosa knew a sympathetic guard.
She had been wrong.
Sofia had spent years maintaining one anonymous contact inside Falcone security.
That contact had opened the gate.
That evening they opened Sofia’s journals.
The entries revealed that Sofia had watched Vivian from afar through trusted intermediaries.
School graduation.
First job.
Engagement.
Wedding.
Then the entries became darker.
Lorenzo is becoming exactly what Salvatore trained him to be.
Vivian is disappearing inside that house.
I promised Anthony I would not interfere unless she chose to leave.
Lorenzo read the words twice.
Then another entry.
Tonight Vivian called Elena and cried for eleven minutes without speaking. Lorenzo was in Boston. He never knew.
He looked at Vivian.
“You called her?”
Vivian nodded.
“What happened?”
“It was our second anniversary.”
Lorenzo remembered being in Boston negotiating a port contract.
“I forgot.”
“Yes.”
He closed the journal.
“No. Keep reading,” Vivian said.
He did.
Another entry described a night Lorenzo came home with blood on his shirt and fell asleep sitting against the shower wall.
Vivian had washed him, bandaged him, and stayed awake until morning.
Lorenzo remembered waking in bed.
He had assumed Matteo helped him.
Another entry described Vivian selling a necklace inherited from her grandmother.
Lorenzo frowned.
“Why did you sell it?”
Vivian hesitated.
Mara answered.
“To pay a family to disappear.”
Lorenzo’s face changed.
“What family?”
May you like
Vivian looked at him.
“The widow and son of a man you were ordered to kill.”
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