Chapter 5
Clarissa denied it immediately.
“She was upset. She sat down.”
Lucia shook her head.
“She collapsed.”
Emilio’s eyes closed.
Giovanni saw it.
He knew.
“What happened?”
Nobody answered.
His voice remained low.
“What happened to my wife?”
Clarissa’s breathing grew shallow.
Emilio’s right hand pressed against the table until his knuckles whitened.
Lucia stared at Helena’s portrait through the glass wall.
Finally Emilio spoke.
“She had chest pain.”
Giovanni’s eyes moved toward him.
“You told me she was found alone.”
Emilio’s voice cracked.
“We panicked.”
Giovanni did not move.
That calm terrified all three.
Clarissa continued.
“She sat down. She said she couldn't breathe properly.”
“Did you call for help?”
Silence.
The question landed harder than any accusation.
Giovanni repeated it.
“Did you call?”
Emilio looked down.
“No.”
Giovanni’s hand loosened from the table.
Not because he was calm.
Because he no longer trusted what his hands wanted to do.
“Why?”
Emilio’s eyes filled.
“She kept saying she was calling you.”
Clarissa covered her mouth.
Emilio continued.
“She said she’d tell you everything. The money. The papers. The accounts.”
Giovanni stared at his son.
“So you let her sit there in pain.”
“No.”
Emilio’s voice rose.
“No, I thought she was having an anxiety episode. She’d had them before.”
Lucia looked at him.
“You knew she had a heart condition.”
Emilio turned.
“So did you.”
The room snapped toward Lucia.
Her lips parted.
Emilio’s chest heaved.
“You were there too.”
Giovanni slowly looked at his daughter.
Lucia began crying.
Not loudly.
Her shoulders simply gave way.
Giovanni looked back at the access log.
Helena’s emergency call had been delayed.
Now he knew why.
But one detail remained.
“Who finally called?”
Lucia whispered:
“I did.”
Giovanni closed his eyes for one second.
Then his attorney slid a medical record forward.
The emergency dispatcher log showed something else.
The first call had come from Helena’s own phone.
It lasted three seconds.
Then disconnected.
A second call came seventeen minutes later from Lucia.
May you like
Giovanni opened his eyes.
Somebody had stopped Helena’s first attempt to call for help.
