Chapter 12 - THE LAST WORDS MY FATHER SPOKE
I'd forgotten the sound of my father's voice.
That realization hurt more than anything.
Seven years is a long time.
Long enough for ordinary details to disappear.
The way someone laughs.
The rhythm of their footsteps.
The exact sound of their voice when they call your name.
Now investigators had found a recording of Robert Bennett speaking to Carlo Versani shortly before the crash that killed my parents.
I watched the video with an attorney present.
Dad stood inside an office.
He looked tired.
Angry.
But unmistakably alive.
"These transfers are illegal," he said.
My breath caught.
Dad.
For a moment, I was nineteen again.
Waiting for him to come home.
Carlo Versani stood behind a desk.
"You don't understand the business."
Dad shook his head.
"I understand enough."
He placed a folder on the table.
"Children's trust accounts. False beneficiary records. Unauthorized withdrawals."
My stomach tightened.
The same scheme.
The same money.
The same names.
Carlo leaned forward.
"You're making a mistake."
Dad didn't move.
"No. My mistake was trusting you."
I covered my mouth.
The recording continued.
Dad said he'd copied the records and planned to give them to federal investigators.
Carlo's expression hardened.
"You have a family."
Dad nodded.
"That's why I'm doing this."
Tears streamed down my cheeks.
Then Dad said something that made everyone in the room go still.
"Antonio Mancini knows."
Adrien leaned forward.
Carlo stared at Dad.
"What?"
"Antonio knows what you've been doing."
A long silence followed.
Then Dad continued.
"He agreed to help me get the evidence out."
The video ended.
I sat motionless.
My father hadn't been a criminal.
He'd been trying to stop one.
And Antonio Mancini hadn't simply signed a protective document involving me.
He'd been helping Dad expose the scheme.
Adrien looked devastated.
"My father never told me."
I turned toward him.
"He died eleven years ago."
Adrien nodded.
"Two years before your parents."
I swallowed.
"Then Carlo must have known Antonio couldn't protect them anymore."
Lucia looked toward the investigator.
"Can we verify whether the file was authentic?"
He nodded.
"We're arranging forensic examination and comparing it against other evidence."
I appreciated that.
After months of lies, I wanted proof.
Not convenient stories.
The investigation continued.
Financial records connected Versani-controlled companies to unauthorized trust transfers.
Witnesses described pressure to conceal transactions.
And Connor's communications provided evidence suggesting the crash had been deliberately arranged.
Meanwhile, the medical facility connected to my parents' case produced an unexpected record.
My mother had been admitted there two days before the accident.
Not for treatment.
For a meeting.
The visitor log listed another woman.
Evelyn Ross.
Aunt Margaret.
I stared.
"She met my mother?"
Lucia nodded.
"Yes."
"Why?"
The investigator opened a scanned note.
My mother had written one sentence.
If we don't survive, give Madison the truth when she's old enough.
I began crying.
Then I noticed something else.
A second name appeared beneath my mother's signature.
Antonio Mancini.
And beside it was a handwritten instruction:
PROTECT THE CHILDREN. BOTH OF THEM.
I stared.
"Both?"
Adrien frowned.
"What children?"
The investigator turned another page.
Then revealed the secret that changed everything.
My parents had another child.
May you like
A baby boy.
And according to the records, he was still alive.
