Chapter 5
The black phone belonged to Celina.
Not officially.
No photographs.
No family contacts.
Only voice recordings.
Teresa had taken it two weeks earlier after Celina left it beside the stove.
My mother had hidden it because she could no longer reach me.
I opened the first recording.
A man’s voice.
Older.
“Gianluca still refuses the council?”
Celina answered.
“He refuses anything that limits him.”
My jaw tightened.
I knew the voice.
Rafael Costa.
One of my father’s oldest captains.
Retired from daily command.
Apparently not from ambition.
Another voice joined.
Martin Vale.
Another senior man.
“We don’t need him gone. We need him dependent.”
Celina laughed softly.
“He depends on his mother.”
The room became still.
Teresa looked down.
The recording continued.
“Then remove her influence.”
Rafael again.
“Send her away.”
Celina answered.
“He won’t allow it.”
“Then make him want to.”
Silence.
I looked at Celina.
She had stopped pretending confusion.
Good.
I pressed play.
Celina’s voice continued.
“If Teresa looks unstable, if the children become difficult around her, Gianluca will eventually separate them.”
My hands became cold.
That was the plan.
Starve the children.
Exhaust Teresa.
Create crying.
Chaos.
Bruises.
Then present my mother as the problem.
Celina had been manufacturing evidence inside my own family.
Not for police.
Not for courts.
For me.
The only judgment she needed was mine.
I looked at Teresa.
“Why the cooking?”
My mother swallowed.
“Because she wanted me tired.”
Celina said nothing.
“Why the hunger?”
Teresa looked at the twins.
“So I would give them my food.”
My chest tightened.
“And then?”
“So she could say I forgot to eat.”
Elegant.
Ugly.
Everything created the next lie.
My mother loses weight.
She must be confused.
The children cry.
Grandma cannot handle them.
The kitchen becomes chaotic.
Teresa is too old.
Eventually I move her.
May you like
Then Celina gains the thing Rafael and Martin wanted.
Distance between me and the woman whose advice they could never control.
