Chapter 3
Adrian stopped denying it.
That changed the balance immediately.
He entered the conference room the following morning with his attorney and sat opposite Lorenzo.
His shoulders were relaxed again.
Almost arrogant.
“You wanted the truth.”
Lorenzo said nothing.
Adrian watched him.
“Elena called me.”
Lorenzo’s eyes sharpened.
“For what?”
“She wanted help.”
The silence lengthened.
Adrian removed several printed messages from a folder.
Claire examined the originals independently before Lorenzo read them.
They were authentic.
Elena:
I need to get Mia out before this becomes worse.
Another:
I can’t keep asking Lorenzo to choose.
And:
Meet me in the car. Do not tell him yet.
Lorenzo read the final message twice.
His thumb remained pressed against the edge of the paper.
Adrian leaned back.
“She was leaving you.”
The words landed.
Bianca sat near the far end of the room.
Her face remained calm.
Too calm.
Lorenzo looked at her.
She tilted her head.
“Now you understand why I tried to stop this memorial circus.”
Lorenzo’s eyes went cold.
“You slapped my daughter.”
Bianca’s mouth tightened.
“I stopped a traumatized child from destroying her memory of her mother.”
Mia was not in the room.
That was deliberate.
Lorenzo would not let adults use her as evidence in front of her.
Adrian continued.
“Elena wanted Mia away from the family.”
“Why you?”
“She thought I could get her somewhere you wouldn’t immediately find.”
Lorenzo’s fingers curled once.
Adrian saw it.
His confidence grew.
“She was afraid of you.”
Lorenzo looked at the messages again.
They hurt because they sounded like Elena.
Her rhythm.
Her impatience.
Her habit of leaving sentences unfinished when angry.
Anthony watched Lorenzo’s face but said nothing.
Then Claire placed one more printout on the table.
“Elena sent these messages from a secondary phone.”
Lorenzo looked up.
He had never known she owned one.
Claire continued.
“But there’s something strange.”
The thread with Adrian began only four days before her death.
No earlier conversation existed.
No introductions.
No explanation.
As if they had already been talking somewhere else.
Then Claire found the deleted contact label attached to Adrian’s number.
It was not saved as ADRIAN.
Elena had named it:
BIANCA’S MAN.
May you like
Bianca’s hand slowly stopped moving over her ring.
And Lorenzo realized Elena’s secret contact with Adrian might not have been about trusting him at all.
