Chapter 16
The trial became national news.
Helena wore white on the first day.
The same color she had worn to Sofia’s funeral.
I watched her enter the courtroom and felt nothing soft left inside me.
Leo did not attend.
He watched cartoons at Adrian’s house with Sofia’s cousins and ate pancakes for dinner.
That was the victory.
He was a child somewhere safe while adults faced the ugliness.
The prosecutor opened with the garage.
Then the trust.
Then Sofia.
The jury saw the bucket.
The note.
The car with no scratch.
They saw Helena’s messages.
They saw Enzo’s instructions.
They saw the balcony video.
I watched twelve strangers understand my wife’s death in less time than it had taken me to accept it.
Helena stared straight ahead.
Only once did she look at me.
When Sofia appeared on the screen.
Alive.
Angry.
Protecting Leo.
Helena’s jaw tightened.
Not regret.
Resentment.
As if Sofia still refused to stay silent.
I testified on the fourth day.
Helena’s lawyer asked if I had ever used violence in business.
“Yes,” I said.
The courtroom shifted.
He smiled.
“So you are a dangerous man?”
“I was.”
“And you expect this jury to believe my client was the threat?”
I looked at Helena.
Then at the jury.
“My son was not afraid of my reputation. He was afraid of her hand reaching down.”
May you like
The room went silent.
The lawyer had no smile left.
