Chapter 6
No one admitted touching Helena’s phone.
Emilio denied it.
Clarissa denied it.
Lucia stared at her hands.
Giovanni noticed.
“What?”
Her breathing became uneven again.
“I saw the phone.”
“Where?”
“On the floor.”
“When?”
“After Mom collapsed.”
Giovanni leaned closer.
“Who picked it up?”
Lucia’s eyes moved toward Clarissa.
Clarissa immediately stood.
“That is not what happened.”
Giovanni did not look at her.
“Sit.”
Her shoulders stiffened.
For a moment, she seemed ready to refuse.
Then Giovanni slowly turned his head.
Clarissa sat.
Lucia continued.
“Mom reached for it.”
Her voice trembled.
“Clarissa picked it up first.”
Clarissa shook her head.
“I was trying to call.”
“Then why didn't you?”
Clarissa’s fingers tightened around the edge of the chair.
“Because Emilio said wait.”
Everyone looked at him.
Emilio stood.
“That is a lie.”
Clarissa looked at him.
Something cold entered her expression.
“You said if an ambulance came, police would come too.”
Emilio’s breathing stopped.
Giovanni stared at his son.
Clarissa continued.
“You said the house was full of financial records and Helena would tell them everything.”
Emilio’s voice became hoarse.
“You agreed.”
“Yes.”
Her eyes filled.
“But don’t sit there and make me carry it alone.”
The alliance shattered completely.
Giovanni’s attorney requested the old phone forensic report.
The device had been preserved with Helena’s effects.
A technician later recovered activity from the night she died.
Helena unlocked the phone at 11:47.
Emergency call attempt at 11:48.
Call ended at 11:48.
No further activity until 12:05.
At 12:05, the phone was unlocked again.
Not by Helena’s passcode.
By a registered fingerprint.
Giovanni stared at the report.
Only two additional fingerprints had been enrolled years earlier.
His.
And Lucia’s.
Everyone slowly turned toward her.
Lucia’s face collapsed.
May you like
The phone had not been controlled only by Emilio or Clarissa.
Giovanni’s daughter had used it during the seventeen-minute gap.
