Chapter 6 - The Father Elena Buried

Elena did not speak to Maria for an hour.

Roman did not force her.

That was new.

At the conservatory, everyone had decided for everyone.

Now he waited.

Finally Elena asked:

“Why?”

Maria looked at her.

“Your father asked me not to tell.”

Elena laughed.

“That excuse again.”

Maria nodded.

“Yes.”

“What was he afraid of?”

“His father.”

“My grandfather?”

“Yes.”

Elena’s eyes hardened.

“What did he do to him?”

Maria answered:

“Framed him.”

“For what?”

“Embezzlement.”

Roman looked at the ledger.

“The same money Voss was moving.”

“Yes.”

Thomas said:

“Your father refused to sign the joint-marriage trust.”

Elena stared.

“At nineteen?”

“He knew Voss was building it.”

“So he disappeared.”

“No.”

Maria shook her head.

“He was forced out.”

Elena looked at her.

“And you helped him?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“He helped me first.”

Roman asked:

“When?”

Maria looked at him.

“Three months after I reached Spain.”

Roman frowned.

“What happened?”

“Voss found me.”

Thomas looked down.

Maria continued.

“Elena’s father moved me before his father’s men arrived.”

Elena whispered:

“He saved you.”

“Yes.”

“And you repaid him by staying silent.”

Maria’s eyes filled.

“Yes.”

Elena stood.

“I need air.”

Roman followed.

Outside, Elena looked at him.

“Do you hate me?”

Roman thought.

“No.”

“Do you trust me?”

“No.”

She nodded.

Fair.

Then:

“Do you still love me?”

Roman looked away.

“Yes.”

That hurt more.

She cried.

Roman said:

“Love is not the part I’m questioning.”

“What part?”

“Whether we keep deciding what the other person can survive.”

Elena nodded.

Behind them, Arthur emerged with the damaged cassette.

“I recovered something.”

They returned inside.

Arthur played the restored section.

Roman’s grandfather’s voice.

Weak.

Then Roman’s father.

“Call an ambulance.”

Elena’s grandfather.

“No one calls anyone.”

Then another voice.

Young.

Male.

Elena froze.

“That’s my father.”

The recording continued.

“Dad, stop.”

Voss:

“Stay out of this.”

Elena’s father:

“He’ll die.”

Voss:

“Then he dies.”

Silence.

Roman stared.

Elena covered her mouth.

Her father had witnessed it too.

Arthur continued the tape.

A struggle.

Then Elena’s father:

“I’m calling.”

A phone being knocked away.

Then the tape cut.

Roman said:

“He tried to help.”

Maria nodded.

“Yes.”

Elena looked at Thomas.

“Is that why my grandfather got rid of him?”

“Partly.”

“What is the other part?”

Thomas looked at Roman.

“He gave Roman’s father the second agreement.”

Roman frowned.

“The one Vale witnessed?”

“Yes.”

Elena’s father carried it to Commissioner Vale.

The father had secretly opposed his own father.

Then helped Maria escape.

Then refused the marriage plan.

Voss had enough.

He framed his son.

Sent him out of the country.

Declared him dead.

Elena whispered:

“What is his name now?”

Maria answered.

“David Serra.”

Elena closed her eyes.

“Does he know me?”

“Yes.”

“Has he watched me?”

Maria hesitated.

“Yes.”

Elena laughed through tears.

“Of course.”

Roman said nothing.

Because he understood.

That did not make it acceptable.

Thomas gave Elena a small photograph.

David.

Older.

Standing near the sea.

Elena touched it.

“My father.”

Then her phone rang.

Unknown number.

She answered.

A man’s voice.

“Elena.”

She stopped.

Roman looked at her.

Her knees almost gave out.

“Dad?”

Silence.

Then:

“Yes.”

She cried.

“You’re alive.”

“Yes.”

“You let me bury you.”

“I know.”

Roman closed his eyes.

Same sentence.

Same wound.

David continued:

“I wanted to come back.”

“Then why didn’t you?”

“Your grandfather controlled the passports, the accounts, the lawyers.”

“I’m thirty-one.”

“I know.”

“You could have called.”

“I did.”

Elena froze.

“When?”

“Every birthday.”

She looked at Thomas.

Thomas went pale.

David said:

“Someone always answered.”

Elena’s eyes hardened.

“Who?”

David replied:

“Your grandfather’s office.”

Thomas closed his eyes.

Elena understood.

“Thomas.”

He nodded.

“I was ordered to block them.”

She stared.

“For years.”

“Yes.”

Then David said:

“Elena, listen.”

She returned to the phone.

“What?”

“Your grandfather is leaving the country.”

Roman looked up.

“What?”

David continued:

“He has a private plane.”

Elena whispered:

“Where?”

“Airport.”

Roman looked at Maria.

Then at Arthur.

Then at the recovered cassette.

Voss had the original agreement.

The corruption records.

And twenty years of secrets.

Roman picked up his coat.

This time Elena stopped him.

“No.”

Roman looked at her.

“We call federal authorities first.”

He stared.

She continued.

“No more private confrontations.”

Roman nodded slowly.

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