Chapter 9
Preston finally agreed to speak.
He arrived with two attorneys.
He looked nothing like the groom from the wedding.
No tuxedo.
No confidence.
Sofia sat across from him.
Raffaele remained beside her.
Preston began by denying murder.
Nobody had accused him yet.
That mattered.
Sofia noticed too.
“You keep answering questions we haven't asked.”
Preston looked at her.
“You think I pushed Beatrice.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Did you hurt her before she fell?”
Silence.
His attorney intervened.
Preston continued anyway.
“We argued.”
“About what?”
“She wanted to leave me.”
“Did you threaten her?”
“People say things.”
“What did you say?”
Preston looked down.
“I told her if she destroyed my life, I'd destroy hers.”
Sofia’s voice remained steady.
“And me?”
Preston looked up.
“What about you?”
“Why did you keep asking what I remembered?”
“Because I was scared.”
“Of what?”
His eyes shifted toward Raffaele.
Sofia saw it.
“Not him.”
She pointed toward herself.
“Look at me.”
Preston did.
“Why were you afraid of my memory?”
He whispered:
“Because you were there.”
Sofia waited.
Preston closed his eyes.
“And because Beatrice chose you.”
That sentence opened the door to the truth.
Not all of it.
May you like
Enough that Sofia knew Part 10 was no longer about whether Preston lied.
It was about why he spent years making sure the one surviving witness stayed close.
