Chapter 10 - The Confession That Made Nadia Look Guilty

Elena stared at Evelyn Grant.

“No.”

Grant did not react.

“The driver claims the payment came through a Saint Aurelia emergency account controlled by Nadia.”

“Claims,” Matteo said.

“Yes.”

“He’s lying.”

“Possibly.”

Elena looked from one to the other.

“Why would Nadia kill Luca if they were working together?”

“That is the question,” Grant said.

The truck driver’s name was Calvin Moss.

He had fled after the crash using cash and documents provided by a private security contractor. Federal agents found him repairing marine engines outside Atlantic City.

His statement was specific.

He had been hired to frighten Luca into stopping, not to kill him.

The instruction was to hit the rear quarter panel on an empty stretch of road and force Luca to pull over.

But Luca had accelerated.

The truck clipped the car.

Rain did the rest.

Moss swore he did not know children were inside.

Elena listened to the recorded interview once.

Only once.

Then she ran to the hospital bathroom and vomited.

Matteo waited outside.

When she emerged, she leaned against the wall.

“Nadia knew Luca had the boys.”

“I don’t know.”

“She had his schedule.”

“I don’t know.”

“Stop saying that.”

“I won’t invent an answer because the truth hurts.”

Elena looked at him.

That was exactly what she had demanded from him.

She hated him for remembering.

Grant obtained Nadia’s account authorizations.

The payment had indeed come from a fund she controlled.

But the digital signature had been entered from a terminal inside Matteo’s city office.

On the night of the payment, Nadia had been in Boston for a prenatal appointment.

“Cloned credentials,” Dmitri said.

“Or someone using her access,” Grant replied.

They pulled building security logs.

The relevant floor cameras had been offline for forty-three minutes.

One badge entered Nadia’s office.

Gabriel Moretti.

The dead security chief.

The apparent contradiction collapsed.

Nadia had not ordered the crash.

Someone had used her financial credentials to make it look as though she had.

Elena sat in silence.

Matteo leaned over the evidence board.

“Gabriel takes the payment authority. Nikolai gives the order.”

Grant shook her head.

“Maybe. We still need proof of who instructed Gabriel.”

Elena remembered the basement log.

VEHICLE EVENT APPROVED: G.M.

“Gabriel could have acted alone.”

“He could,” Grant said.

Matteo looked unconvinced.

Marianne arrived carrying one of Nadia’s old phones recovered from evidence storage.

“There may be proof.”

She had spent the morning reconstructing deleted messages.

One fragment survived.

GABRIEL: HE WON’T STOP.

UNKNOWN: THEN MAKE HIM STOP. NO BODIES IF POSSIBLE. ESPECIALLY CHILDREN.

GABRIEL: UNDERSTOOD.

The unknown number had been routed through a disposable device.

But the wording mattered.

No bodies if possible.

Especially children.

Elena closed her eyes.

It did not absolve anyone.

It made the crime worse in a different way.

Someone had treated her family’s survival as a preference.

Not a requirement.

Dmitri traced the device’s activation.

It had connected to a cell tower covering Nikolai’s country club.

Weak evidence.

Not enough alone.

Then Marianne found a calendar entry on Gabriel’s tablet.

N.V. — 8 PM — CLUB.

Same night.

Grant nodded slowly.

“Now we have a chain.”

Matteo sat beside Elena after everyone left.

“I’m sorry.”

“For which part?”

“For every door my family opened into your life.”

Elena looked at him.

“Luca opened one too.”

“To expose us.”

“He still chose to get involved.”

“He was trying to protect people.”

“So was Nadia.”

“Yes.”

They sat in the quiet hospital room while Sofia slept.

Elena noticed how tired Matteo looked.

“You haven’t slept.”

“Neither have you.”

“I’m not being investigated by half the federal government.”

“Only half?”

She laughed unexpectedly.

It hurt.

But it was real.

Matteo looked surprised.

Elena looked down.

“This is dangerous.”

“What?”

“That.”

“The laugh?”

“Us forgetting for five seconds what you are.”

His expression closed.

“I haven’t forgotten.”

“Good.”

“I also haven’t forgotten what you did for Sofia.”

“That cannot become a debt.”

“I know.”

“And I’m not staying because she needs milk. Donor milk arrives tomorrow.”

“I know.”

“And I’m not replacing Nadia.”

Matteo’s face changed.

“I would never ask you to.”

“Good.”

The word came out softer than intended.

The next morning, Elena went home.

A federal protection team watched the building.

Matteo kept his promise.

No men in her kitchen.

She stood in the apartment alone for the first time since discovering Luca’s drive.

The nursery door remained open.

Elena walked inside.

She picked up Nico’s stuffed fox.

Then she sat on the floor and let herself remember her sons without solving anything.

No files.

No killers.

No codes.

Just Nico laughing when peas landed in his hair.

Leo falling asleep to the sound of the dishwasher.

Luca dancing badly in the kitchen.

Grief returned to being grief instead of evidence.

For an hour, that was almost a mercy.

Then Elena heard a knock.

She froze.

Federal agents were stationed downstairs.

No one should have reached her door unannounced.

A voice came from the hallway.

“Mrs. Rossi?”

Elena reached for her phone.

“Who is it?”

“My name is Sister Agnes Bell. I worked with Nadia at Saint Aurelia.”

Elena did not open the door.

“What do you want?”

“I have something Luca gave me the day before he died.”

Elena’s hand tightened around the phone.

“What?”

The woman answered through the wood.

“A letter addressed to Matteo Volkov.”

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Elena stopped breathing.

“And he made me promise never to deliver it unless Matteo chose to turn against his own family.”