Chapter 9
The first fire happened eight days before Elena’s death.
Not at the estate.
At Richard’s office.
Veronica finally admitted it.
Elena had given her copies of invoice records and notes documenting Richard’s billing scheme.
Veronica panicked.
She took the folder to her brother.
Richard demanded the originals.
Veronica said Elena still had them.
They burned the copies.
Then Richard confronted Elena privately.
Matteo listened without moving.
“What happened?”
Richard answered this time.
His voice was quieter.
“She told me I was finished.”
His fingers flexed against the table.
“She said she'd tell you everything.”
“Why didn't she?”
Richard looked toward Veronica.
Veronica’s eyes filled.
Elena’s health deteriorated sharply that week.
She entered the hospital.
Matteo spent most of those final days with her.
She died six days later.
There was no evidence Richard or Veronica caused her illness.
No hidden murder.
No convenient crime.
Something emotionally worse remained.
They had simply waited.
Elena was dying.
They knew it.
And rather than confess, they gambled that she would die before she exposed them.
Matteo’s breathing became shallow.
Veronica wiped one tear from her face.
“I told myself I would explain everything afterward.”
“But you didn't.”
“No.”
“You met me fourteen months later.”
“Yes.”
Matteo watched her.
“And you still didn't.”
Her eyes dropped.
“No.”
He stood.
Veronica’s hands trembled.
“I loved you.”
Matteo stopped.
Not because the sentence moved him.
Because she believed it.
He could hear that.
That made everything uglier.
“You loved me while knowing what you did to Elena.”
Veronica’s breath broke.
“Yes.”
Silence.
Then Matteo asked the question she had feared for years.
“Did you meet me again by accident?”
Veronica’s face changed.
Richard closed his eyes.
Matteo saw both reactions.
The room suddenly felt very small.
Veronica whispered:
“No.”
Matteo stared at her.
May you like
She had not simply hidden an old betrayal after falling in love with him.
She had deliberately come back into his life.
