Chapter 11 - Elena’s Second Lie
Elena stopped the vehicle.
Nobody spoke.
Sofia held the ledger open.
“Your name is here.”
Elena stared ahead.
“I can explain.”
“You always say that right before my life gets worse.”
“Sofia—”
“What did you do?”
Elena turned around.
“For years, Vittorio paid me.”
Riccardo reached for his gun.
Sofia stopped him.
“No.”
Riccardo looked at her.
“She took money from the man who killed your mother.”
“I want to hear her.”
Elena’s face crumbled.
“At first, it was hush money.”
Sofia laughed in disbelief.
“Hush money.”
“To keep you hidden.”
“To keep me safe?”
Elena looked away.
“To keep me safe.”
Sofia shut the ledger.
“Of course.”
“I was young.”
“You keep saying that.”
“I was twenty-four.”
“And then?”
“I spent the first ten years afraid every car outside our apartment belonged to Vittorio.”
Elena wiped tears from her face.
“Then one day Gabriel found me.”
Riccardo’s eyes narrowed.
“What did Caruso want?”
“He said Vittorio would leave Sofia alone if I reported anything unusual.”
Sofia stared at her.
“You spied on me?”
“Only things that might expose you.”
“Like what?”
“Schools. Doctors. People asking questions.”
“Did you tell him where I worked?”
Elena went silent.
Sofia’s voice fell.
“Mom.”
“I didn’t know Riccardo still ate there.”
Antonio swore.
“You knew exactly where she worked.”
Elena snapped.
“I was trying to keep control.”
“You sent her directly into Riccardo’s restaurant!”
“No. She applied there herself.”
Sofia thought back.
Elena had recommended the neighborhood.
Elena had said Bellini paid better.
“Elena.”
The name felt strange in Sofia’s mouth.
“You told me to apply.”
Elena started crying.
“I thought if Riccardo saw you—”
Sofia recoiled.
“You wanted him to.”
“I wanted this to end.”
“You could have told me!”
“I was terrified you’d hate me.”
Sofia laughed through tears.
“So you lied until armed men started shooting at me.”
Elena covered her face.
Riccardo stared out the window.
“You should have brought her to me.”
Elena looked at him.
“You were still killing people when she was in kindergarten.”
Riccardo didn’t answer.
“That’s what you don’t understand,” Elena said.
“You think blood makes you her father.”
Sofia looked between them.
“It doesn’t.”
Both went quiet.
She continued.
“Neither of you gets to claim me because of what you did twenty-three years ago.”
Her voice shook.
“I decide what you are to me now.”
Nobody spoke.
Antonio quietly closed the ledger.
Then his phone buzzed.
A video message.
Unknown number.
He opened it.
Marco appeared on screen.
His face was bruised.
Blood covered one side of his shirt.
Behind him stood Vittorio.
Vittorio looked into the camera.
“You have six hours.”
He held up a gun.
“The ledgers for Marco.”
Riccardo stared.
Vittorio continued.
“And Sofia comes with them.”
Elena shouted, “No.”
The video zoomed closer to Marco.
Vittorio smiled.
“If she doesn’t come, Marco dies.”
Then Marco suddenly looked directly into the camera.
“Boss.”
Vittorio frowned.
Marco spoke quickly.
“Don’t bring the ledgers.”
A fist hit him.
The image shook.
May you like
But before the video ended, Marco shouted one last sentence.
“The tape is the real evidence!”
