Chapter 12
Talia chose to talk.
The meeting took place in Daniel Roth’s office with separate attorneys present.
Carmela was invited through counsel.
She came.
Paolo had not seen his mother since the terrace.
Carmela wore pearls.
Elise did not attend.
She had no interest in sitting across from the woman who endangered Ava.
Talia began.
“I knew about the car.”
Carmela turned toward her.
“Talia.”
Her daughter kept going.
“I gave Mom the schedule. I changed the travel detail.”
“Stop talking.”
Talia looked at her mother.
“For once, you stop.”
Carmela’s face hardened.
Talia admitted knowing Gavin was being paid to interfere with Paolo’s SUV.
She claimed Carmela told her it would simply strand Paolo long enough to create a crisis.
Paolo did not believe that completely.
Neither did investigators.
“You prepared succession papers,” Daniel reminded her.
Talia looked down.
“I knew there was a chance he wouldn’t come home.”
Paolo felt the words physically.
“You knew.”
Talia began crying.
“I was drowning.”
“So you let Mom solve it?”
“I thought you were going to destroy me.”
“I was going to remove you from a job.”
“And then the loans came due. Mom lost her house. Everybody knew what I’d done.”
There it was.
Shame.
Not merely greed.
Talia had spent years being treated as the capable Ventresca daughter.
Admitting failure felt worse to her than almost anything.
Almost.
Carmela interrupted.
“He would’ve humiliated you.”
Paolo looked at his mother.
“You tried to kill me to protect her from embarrassment?”
Carmela’s eyes flashed.
“I protected this family before you were old enough to understand what that meant.”
“By taking Ava?”
“By keeping her where she belonged.”
“With Elise.”
“With us.”
The distinction explained everything.
Carmela did not see Elise as family.
Ava was Ventresca blood.
Elise was temporary.
Paolo leaned forward.
“And holding my child over a fire?”
Carmela’s certainty faltered.
“She wouldn’t give her to me.”
“She’s her mother.”
“She was hysterical.”
“You told her I was dead.”
Carmela looked away.
May you like
For the first time, she had no family principle to hide behind.
Only what she had done.
