Chapter 6 - The Girl in the Second Car

Sophia did not tell her story in one sitting.

She needed breaks.

Sometimes she signed. Sometimes she typed. Once she simply covered her eyes and waited until Ruby asked whether she wanted everyone to leave.

Santiago respected every pause.

It was the hardest thing he had done in years.

He could negotiate with hostile families without raising his voice. He could settle disputes that had frightened grown men into hiding.

But he could not make himself useful to his little sister by forcing her to remember.

Finally, Sophia began.

The night their father died, she had been following his car with Mrs. Delaney and a security driver. They stopped near a private road after Alessandro's vehicle pulled over.

Sophia saw another car approach.

A man got out.

She knew him.

Dr. Vale.

At the time he was a consultant for a Moretti-funded charity, not yet her physician.

She signed his name with trembling hands.

Santiago felt himself grow cold.

“What happened next?” he asked.

Sophia reached for the tablet.

Dad was angry. He was arguing with someone about money. He said he wouldn't sign.

“Sign what?”

Sophia shook her head.

Then she typed:

The doctor took a folder from the other car.

She had not seen the crash itself. Mrs. Delaney had covered her eyes when tires screeched and metal struck the barrier farther down the road.

But she remembered what came afterward.

The doctor returned to the second car, bent close to the rear window, and spoke directly to her.

“Can you remember his words?” Ruby asked.

Sophia nodded.

She typed for nearly a minute.

If you tell Santiago what you saw, the same thing will happen to him. Be a good girl. Stay quiet.

Santiago read the words twice.

He had pictured his sister's silence as an illness.

Instead, he was reading the memory of a terrified child who believed she could save his life by surrendering her own voice.

“Did Mrs. Delaney hear him?”

Sophia nodded again.

“Did she say anything?”

Sophia signed:

She told me to listen to the doctor.

Ruby lowered her hands.

Santiago stood and crossed to the window, unable to let Sophia watch the full force of his anger.

When he turned back, his voice was gentle.

“You were twelve. None of it was your responsibility.”

Sophia stared at him.

He signed the words Ruby had taught him.

I believe you.

The effort was clumsy.

Sophia's eyes filled.

Then she reached for his hand.

Downstairs, Tomas was waiting with another discovery.

He had tracked the disputed foundation payments to a lawyer named Victor Sloane, who had handled Alessandro's business affairs before his death.

Sloane had also overseen the transfer of several shipping assets after the crash.

The transfers had made Santiago head of the family.

But they had placed a separate block of voting rights under the control of an irrevocable trust.

Its beneficiary was Sophia.

Its trustee was Victor Sloane.

“And who could alter the trust?” Santiago asked.

Tomas handed him the relevant page.

“Only the beneficiary, once she turned eighteen, or a court-appointed representative if she was declared unable to make her own decisions.”

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Sophia had turned eighteen the previous year.

No one had told her.