Chapter 11 - Patricia Comes Back
Dante reached the mansion in twelve minutes.
Police were already there.
Leo sat on the nanny’s lap wearing dinosaur pajamas.
The moment he saw Dante, he reached out.
“Da-da!”
Dante lifted him.
“You’re okay.”
Leo pressed his face against Dante’s neck.
Dante held him tighter.
Officer Reynolds approached.
“The nanny heard movement near the side patio.”
“Did Patricia get inside?”
“No.”
Security cameras showed Patricia walking along the hedge shortly after 11 p.m.
She tried the kitchen door.
Then the side entrance.
Both were locked.
She stood outside the nursery window for almost three minutes.
Dante felt sick.
“What was she doing?”
“We can’t tell.”
Then another camera showed Patricia leaving something beneath a patio chair.
A white envelope.
Police collected it.
It was addressed to Dante.
Melissa arrived before anyone opened it.
Inside was a handwritten letter.
Dante—
You have turned everyone against me.
Dante almost stopped reading.
Even now, Patricia saw herself as the victim.
I did things you consider wrong because somebody had to protect what your father built.
Dante continued.
Vanessa was weak. Eric was incompetent. Caroline was meddling. You were grieving and careless.
He clenched his jaw.
Then:
I moved money because money can be replaced. Family cannot.
Dante looked toward Leo.
Patricia had attacked him less than forty-eight hours earlier.
The hypocrisy was almost unbearable.
The letter continued:
You will eventually understand that Caroline created division where there had been loyalty.
Dante whispered:
“No.”
Officer Reynolds looked at him.
Dante kept reading.
She made you question me. She made Lorenzo question me. And now a child who cannot even speak properly has become the reason you are willing to send your mother to prison.
Dante folded the letter.
He had read enough.
Melissa held out her hand.
“There may be evidence later in the letter.”
Dante gave it to her.
She finished.
Then frowned.
“What?”
“There’s a line here.”
She read:
Ask Vanessa what Caroline really said the night before she went into labor.
Dante stared.
Vanessa arrived forty minutes later.
She looked terrified.
“I told you everything.”
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
“Mom says Caroline told you something the night before Leo was born.”
Vanessa’s face changed.
Dante saw it.
“What?”
“It wasn’t about money.”
“Then what?”
Vanessa looked toward Leo.
“Caroline asked me to promise something.”
“What?”
“If anything happened to her…”
Her voice broke.
“She wanted me to make sure you never blamed yourself.”
Dante stopped.
“Why would I blame myself?”
Vanessa wiped her eyes.
“Because she knew she had a heart condition.”
Silence.
Dante stared at her.
“What heart condition?”
“She found out late in the pregnancy.”
“That’s impossible.”
“She didn’t tell you.”
Dante stepped back.
He felt as though the floor had shifted.
“She would have told me.”
“She was afraid you’d insist on an early delivery.”
“Of course I would have!”
“She knew.”
Vanessa cried.
“She wanted Leo to have more time.”
Dante looked at his son.
For eighteen months, he had carried one private wound.
He had wondered whether he missed something.
Whether he should have seen Caroline deteriorating.
Whether bringing her home after delivery had been a mistake.
Now he learned she had hidden a diagnosis.
Not because she didn’t trust him.
Because she knew him too well.
“She made you promise?”
“Yes.”
“And you never told me?”
“I thought it would hurt you more.”
Dante laughed bitterly.
“That seems to be everyone’s excuse.”
Vanessa covered her face.
Then Officer Reynolds entered.
“We found Patricia’s car.”
Dante looked up.
“Where?”
“At Romano Memorial Gardens.”
The family cemetery.
Where Lorenzo was buried.
May you like
Where Caroline was buried.
And Patricia was still there.
