Chapter 6
Preston wrote for two hours.
Every insult Brenda had said when I was not in the room.
Every fake concern.
Every time she told him a Marcelli heir could not come from “a woman like Audrey.”
Every time he had stayed silent.
He wrote that too.
I watched him from the bed.
I did not comfort him.
He did not ask me to.
That was the first decent thing he had done all day.
Near midnight, Gary found Celia’s car outside a private clinic near the river.
Brenda’s driver had dropped them there.
Rocco called Detective Hale, the officer handling my case.
Within twenty minutes, police were outside the clinic.
Celia came out first.
She tried to act confused.
Then officers found blank lab forms in her bag.
Forged signatures.
A flash drive.
Cash.
Brenda was not with her.
“She left through the back,” Gary said after a call. “Different car.”
Preston stood.
“I know where she went.”
Rocco looked at him.
“The chapel?”
Preston nodded.
I frowned.
“What chapel?”
Rocco’s expression darkened.
“Our family mausoleum.”
A chill passed through me.
“Luca.”
Preston’s voice shook.
“When I was little, Mom took me there whenever I disobeyed. She said if I disappointed her, I would end up forgotten too.”
I felt sick.
Rocco looked like he might collapse.
“I never knew.”
“She made sure you didn’t.”
Detective Hale agreed to send officers, but Rocco insisted on going.
Gary went with him.
Preston looked at me.
“I want to go too.”
I hated that I understood.
“Then go,” I said. “But do not go as her son. Go as my witness.”
He nodded.
Before he left, he stopped at the door.
“I failed you today.”
“Yes,” I said.
He swallowed.
“I will spend the rest of my life proving that today was the last time.”
I did not answer.
But I did not look away.
They found Brenda at the mausoleum just before dawn.
Rocco called me from the car after it was over.
His voice sounded older.
“She confessed part of it.”
My hand tightened around the phone.
“What part?”
“She said Luca cried too much. She said she only wanted silence.”
Tears slid down my face.
“And our baby?”
“She said no woman would replace her in this family again.”
A nurse came in and saw my face.
She rushed to my side.
I waved her away.
“I’m okay.”
But I was not okay.
I was alive.
My baby was alive.
That was different.
Brenda was arrested at sunrise.
Celia gave up the whole scheme by noon.
The fake paternity test.
The fake genetic report.
The plan to push me until I miscarried or Preston left me.
The money trail.
The forged files.
Everything.
By evening, Detective Hale came to my room with one more piece of evidence.
A recording from Brenda’s purse.
She had recorded herself before the shower.
In it, she said, “If Audrey falls, everyone will call it clumsy. Pregnant women fall all the time.”
I closed my eyes.
May you like
Justice had begun.
But safety still felt far away.
