Chapter 8 - THE FIRE BETWEEN THEM
Norah knew.
She had known for six months.
Matteo found her standing beside the harbor after Evelyn was rescued.
He could barely approach.
“You knew about Providence.”
She did not deny it.
“Yes.”
“For six months.”
“Yes.”
“And you stayed.”
“I was pregnant.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“It’s the only one I had.”
Her eyes filled.
“I needed time to understand whether I had married the man who killed my father.”
Matteo felt physically sick.
“I didn’t know he was inside.”
“I know that now.”
“But you thought I did.”
“Yes.”
She looked at him.
“Do you understand what that did to me?”
No.
He didn’t.
But he tried.
“You woke beside me wondering whether I had murdered him.”
“Yes.”
“You let me touch you.”
Her face tightened.
“Don’t make that about your pain.”
He shut his mouth.
She deserved that.
Norah continued.
“My father disappeared when I was sixteen. Mom told me he died protecting us. She never told me how.”
“Why?”
“Because she didn’t know who ordered the fire until Marco sent me the file.”
Matteo understood.
Marco had been poisoning their marriage long before Harper.
He sent Norah evidence.
Then Harper entered Matteo’s life.
Then the repeated betrayals.
Every weakness Matteo already possessed had been sharpened and used.
But the choice to cheat was still his.
Marco had not forced that.
“I’m sorry.”
Norah looked away.
“Which part?”
“All of it.”
“That’s convenient.”
“Yes.”
He almost laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because for once there was no defense left.
“I ordered that fire because I wanted men to fear me.”
Norah’s eyes returned to his.
“I was twenty-one. Stupid. Cruel. Desperate to become what my family respected.”
“Thomas died.”
“Yes.”
“I lost my father.”
“Yes.”
“You don’t get to undo that.”
“No.”
They stood in silence.
Then Matteo said:
“If you never forgive me, I understand.”
Her expression changed.
The old Matteo would never have said that.
“I’m not asking forgiveness because I deserve it.”
“What are you asking?”
“Nothing.”
That startled her.
“I’m going to testify about Providence.”
Norah’s face went pale.
“You’ll go to prison.”
“Maybe.”
“Matteo.”
“I’m done letting other people pay for my choices.”
There.
The sentence that changed everything.
Not reconciliation.
Not yet.
But something.
Then Evelyn approached.
“We found Thomas’s original notebook.”
Norah turned.
“What notebook?”
It had been recovered from Marco’s safe.
Inside were Thomas Vale’s final entries.
The night of the warehouse fire, he had written:
MATTEO DOES NOT KNOW I’M INSIDE. MARCO SENT HIM FALSE INTELLIGENCE. IF I DIE, DO NOT BLAME THE BOY.
Norah began crying.
Matteo could not move.
Thomas had known.
Even as he died, he had tried to protect the young man who ordered the fire.
Then Evelyn opened the final page.
Another sentence:
CARLO ROSSI IS HELPING ME EXPOSE MARCO. IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO BOTH OF US, TRUST ARTHUR.
Norah looked at Arthur.
May you like
But the next line changed everything again.
AND NEVER TRUST DR. EVANS.
