Chapter 19 - The Last Witness| Daniel denied that he had harmed my mother.
When investigators showed him the recovered recording, he did not ask how they had obtained it. He listened with his eyes closed, then placed both hands flat on the table.
“I should have told you,” he said.
“Tell me what?” I asked.
“That your mother came to me the night before she died.”
He explained that Eleanor had discovered Daniel had signed off on several false reports early in the investigation. He had not created the fraudulent accounts, but he had approved paperwork without examining the supporting documents.
At first, he claimed he had been deceived.
Later, he learned that the payments were being routed through companies linked to Victor and Isabella.
He was ashamed.
Eleanor confronted him and demanded that he testify.
“I told her I would,” Daniel said. “Then Victor contacted me. He said if I went to the authorities, my family would lose everything.”
“So you stayed silent.”
“Yes.”
“Did you tell Victor where my mother was going?”
Daniel's eyes filled with tears.
“I told him she was planning to meet a journalist. I thought he would frighten her into abandoning the story. I didn't think he would hurt her.”
“You gave him the information that put her in danger.”
“I know.”
His confession was not the same as proof that he had caused her death. But it explained why my mother had written that the person she feared wasn't the one everyone suspected.
She had trusted Daniel to help her expose the fraud.
Instead, he had betrayed her confidence.
Investigators examined his communications and discovered that he had received a payment from a company connected to Northstar Holdings shortly after the accident. He claimed it was repayment for consulting work, but the contract supporting the payment appeared to have been created after the fact.
The authorities opened a separate inquiry into his role.
I left the interview feeling as if my grief had acquired another layer.
Daniel had not necessarily caused my mother's death, but he had made it easier for those who wanted her silenced.
And my mother had known enough to be afraid.
Outside the building, Adrian waited beside Rachel's car. He had not asked to attend the interview. He had simply asked Rachel whether I wanted someone to drive me home.
I had said yes.
He opened the passenger door but did not reach for me.
“Do you want me to leave?” he asked.
I looked at him.
“Not yet.”
We drove through the city in silence. The streets were crowded, and sunlight flashed between the buildings. I watched people carrying groceries, arguing over taxis, and hurrying toward subway entrances.
For a moment, I envied them their ordinary worries.
At a red light, Adrian spoke.
“I used to think the truth would destroy everything.”
“Maybe it will destroy some things.”
“I know.”
He kept his eyes on the road.
“But it may give other things a chance to survive.”
I studied his hands on the steering wheel. They were steady, but the knuckles had gone pale.
“Are you afraid of losing the company?”
“Yes.”
“Your reputation?”
“Yes.”
“Me?”
He turned toward me.
“Every day.”
I looked away.
“That's not a reason to change, Adrian.”
“No. It's a reason to tell you the truth.”
He pulled into a quiet street and stopped the car.
“I loved you,” he said. “But I treated love like ownership. I thought that if I provided a home, money, and security, I had fulfilled my part. I didn't understand that you could have all those things and still be lonely.”
I swallowed.
“I was lonely beside you.”
“I know.”
“You made me feel like my voice was a problem.”
“I know.”
“And when I finally spoke, you called me a shame.”
He closed his eyes.
“I'll regret that for the rest of my life.”
I wanted to forgive him.
I also wanted to believe that forgiveness would not require me to return to the life I had escaped.
“I don't know what happens to us,” I said.
“Neither do I.”
“I'm not promising anything.”
“I won't ask you to.”
We sat there until the light changed and a driver behind us honked.
Adrian drove me to my building and waited until I had reached the entrance.
Before I went inside, he said my name.
“Sophia.”
I turned.
“If you never come back, I'll still be grateful that you left.”
I didn't know what to say.
So I went upstairs.
That night, Rachel called with an update.
The investigators had obtained evidence linking Victor to the threats against my mother, the financial fraud, and the destruction of records. He would be formally charged with several offenses, though the investigation into the deaths remained open.
Daniel had agreed to cooperate.
Isabella had provided additional documents.
And the Bellweather Trust's successor organization had approved a restitution program for families whose claims could be verified.
For the first time, the case was moving toward accountability.
Then Rachel told me something else.
Victor's lawyer had submitted a new document to the court.
It was a letter allegedly written by my mother.
According to the letter, Eleanor had not been trying to expose the Romano family.
She had been trying to protect it.
May you like
And the person she believed had ordered Dominic's death was someone no one had investigated.
Someone who had been present at my wedding.
