Chapter 7 - What Antonio Did for His Son

Grace looked at Antonio.

“No.”

Antonio did not deny it.

Dante stared at his father.

“Who?”

Antonio answered.

“A nurse.”

Grace’s face changed.

“She helped take him?”

“Yes.”

“Name.”

“Margaret Sloan.”

Grace sat down.

“I remember her.”

Antonio closed his eyes.

“She carried Dante from your room.”

“How did you find her?”

“Years later.”

Dante’s voice was cold.

“And you killed her.”

Antonio looked at him.

“I confronted her.”

“That is not what I asked.”

“She reached for a gun.”

Victor laughed.

Antonio turned.

“She did.”

Victor shrugged.

“Convenient.”

Dante looked at Frank.

The old driver was pale.

“You knew?”

“No.”

Antonio spoke.

“Frank knew none of this.”

Grace whispered:

“What did Margaret tell you?”

Antonio looked at her.

“That Victor paid her.”

Victor smiled.

“Thomas paid me.”

“And after she told you?”

Antonio’s jaw tightened.

“She fired.”

Dante looked at Victor.

“You have proof?”

Victor tapped the ledger.

“I have a payment to the cleaner who removed her body.”

Antonio stepped forward.

“I paid because I panicked.”

Victor smiled.

“There is always an explanation.”

Dante stared at his father.

“Did you murder her?”

Antonio looked at his son for a long time.

Then:

“No.”

Dante believed he believed that.

It was not the same as certainty.

Victor closed the ledger.

“So.”

He smiled.

“Wedding or destruction.”

Marina stepped forward.

“No wedding.”

Victor looked amused.

She removed her engagement ring.

Dante watched.

Marina held it in her palm.

“I will not marry him to complete your plan.”

Victor’s smile faded.

“You think this is about romance?”

Marina dropped the ring on the floor.

“No.”

It landed between them.

“This is about the fact that you built our entire lives like paperwork.”

Robert whispered:

“Marina.”

She looked at him.

“You helped.”

He nodded.

“Yes.”

She began crying.

“Did Mom know?”

Robert’s face broke.

“She discovered part of it.”

Grace stood.

“What happened to Elena?”

Robert looked at the floor.

Victor answered.

“She became inconvenient.”

Marina stopped breathing.

Dante turned toward Victor.

“What does that mean?”

Victor smiled.

Robert lunged.

At seventy, he moved faster than anyone expected.

He grabbed Victor by the coat.

“You promised.”

Victor’s cane hit Robert’s ribs.

Dante caught Robert before he fell.

Marina screamed.

Antonio stepped between Victor and everyone else.

“What did you do to Elena?”

Victor looked at Robert.

“You never told her?”

Robert’s face collapsed.

Marina whispered:

“Dad.”

Robert began shaking.

“She did not die in an accident.”

Marina stared.

“What?”

“I was driving.”

Dante looked at him.

Robert continued.

“Elena wanted to leave.”

Grace covered her mouth.

“She had found the Harbor House records.”

Robert nodded.

“She said she was taking Marina and going to federal agents.”

Marina’s knees weakened.

I caught her arm.

She pulled away.

“What happened?”

Robert looked at Victor.

“He had men follow us.”

Victor said nothing.

Robert’s voice cracked.

“A truck forced us off the road.”

Marina stopped breathing.

“My mother?”

“She died before the ambulance arrived.”

Marina stared at her father.

“You knew.”

“Yes.”

“And you still worked with him.”

Robert closed his eyes.

“Yes.”

She slapped him.

Hard.

Robert did not move.

She slapped him again.

“You still worked with him.”

“I was afraid.”

“You were always afraid.”

Marina backed away.

“Mom was not.”

Victor sighed.

“Sentiment wastes time.”

Dante turned toward him.

Victor raised the ledger.

“Decision.”

Dante looked at Antonio.

“If this goes public, what happens?”

Antonio answered honestly.

“People go to prison.”

“You?”

“Maybe.”

“Robert?”

“Yes.”

“Victor?”

Victor laughed.

“If you can keep me alive long enough.”

Dante looked at Marina.

“What do you want?”

She wiped her face.

“The truth.”

Robert looked at her.

“Marina.”

She did not look at him.

“The truth.”

Dante turned toward Grace.

She held the blue blanket against her chest.

“What do you want?”

Grace looked at Antonio.

Then Victor.

Then her son.

“No more funerals for people who are still alive.”

Dante nodded.

Then looked at Victor.

“No wedding.”

Victor smiled.

“You choose prison for your father?”

Antonio answered before Dante could.

“Yes.”

Dante looked at him.

Antonio stepped forward.

“I choose it.”

Grace stared.

Antonio’s voice shook.

“I lost thirty years because I kept making choices based on fear.”

He looked at Dante.

“No more.”

Victor’s smile disappeared.

Antonio continued.

“Give them the ledger.”

Victor stepped backward.

“No.”

Dante’s guards moved.

Victor reached inside his coat.

Frank shouted.

“Gun.”

Everything happened at once.

Antonio pushed Grace down.

Dante struck Victor’s arm.

The gun fired into the ceiling.

A guard tackled Victor.

The ledger fell.

I grabbed it.

Victor shouted.

“You have no idea what is inside that.”

I held it against my chest.

Dante looked at me.

“Julia.”

I gave it to him.

He opened the cover.

The first page contained names.

Dates.

Amounts.

Then one name made Frank stop.

He whispered:

“Oh God.”

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Dante looked.

FRANK COLLINS.