Chapter 12 - THE AUNT WHO WASN’T DEAD
Sofia Moretti had been erased from every family photograph after I turned twelve.
My father told us she died overseas.
My mother never corrected him.
Now she stood inside an abandoned terminal wearing a dark wool coat and holding Ewan’s wheelchair.
My brother sat beside her.
Alive.
Angry.
Confused.
I crossed the distance between us.
Ewan reached for me.
I checked his face and wrists.
No new injuries.
Then I turned toward Sofia.
“You kidnapped him?”
“I rescued him badly.”
“From Delia?”
“From Victor.”
Vincent looked around.
“Where is my brother?”
“Gone.”
Sofia’s voice was flat.
“He delivered Ewan to Leonard’s men.”
“Then how did you get him?”
“I have spent twenty years learning how to take things from Leonard Vandermark.”
I stared at her.
“You were supposed to be dead.”
“So was your brother.”
Fair point.
Sofia looked older than my childhood memory, but not softer.
“Your father sent me away after I found the first financial records connecting him to Leonard.”
“The ledgers?”
“Older records.”
“Why fake your death?”
“Because Antonio knew Leonard would kill me if he suspected I had them.”
“Everyone in this family seems very comfortable pretending people are dead.”
“No.”
Her eyes hardened.
“Your father was comfortable with it.”
I thought of the letter.
“He regretted Ewan.”
“Regret is cheap when the fire is already burning.”
Ewan tapped his board.
S.
O.
F.
I.
A.
Then:
T.
R.
U.
S.
T.
He trusted her.
That was enough for the moment.
“What does Leonard want now?”
Sofia looked at me.
“The same thing he always wanted.”
“Control of the docks.”
“No.”
She shook her head.
“Control of the trust.”
I frowned.
“The thirty-one percent?”
“All of it.”
“Impossible.”
“Not if you marry Celeste.”
She handed me a copy of the marriage agreement.
A page had been marked.
Section Twenty-Two.
Death or incapacity.
If I became incapacitated after signing, Celeste received temporary voting control of my shares.
Together with Ewan’s disputed shares, Vandermark Capital could command the board.
I looked up.
“They weren’t planning to wait for me to grow old.”
Sofia gave me a cold smile.
“Now you’re thinking clearly.”
Vincent cursed under his breath.
“So the wedding wasn’t the end.”
“No.”
Sofia looked at me.
“It was your funeral with flowers.”
Ewan struck the board hard.
C.
E.
L.
E.
S.
T.
E.
Then another word.
K.
N.
E.
W.
“Yes,” I said.
“She knew.”
He shook his head violently.
Then pointed to the final word.
F.
I.
R.
E.
I stared at him.
“Celeste knew about Pier 44 six years ago?”
Ewan nodded.
“How?”
His hand moved.
Sofia answered before he finished.
“Because Celeste was there.”
Everything in me went still.
“At the warehouse?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Sofia’s face became grim.
“Because she was the person who locked the east service door.”
Ewan closed his eyes.
And for the first time I understood why he had reacted so violently when he saw her name.
Celeste hadn’t inherited her father’s crime.
She had participated in it.
She had been twenty-three years old.
May you like
Old enough to know exactly what she was doing.
---
