Chapter 11
Mark looked at Claudia as though seeing her for the first time.
“How long?”
She remained standing.
Proud.
Still elegant.
But her breath had begun coming faster.
“How long did you know who I was?”
No answer.
Mark stood.
“Claudia.”
Her eyes snapped to him.
“Since before we met.”
The sentence broke something.
Mark laughed once.
Empty.
“You picked me.”
“Yes.”
“To get to him.”
“At first.”
Richard watched.
He did not intervene.
This confrontation did not belong to him yet.
Mark’s hand curled.
Claudia saw it.
She did not step back.
“Do it.”
Mark froze.
“Hit me.”
Her eyes filled.
“Then become exactly what I spent years telling you he made you.”
Mark’s fist slowly opened.
Richard noticed.
For the first time that night, his son chose differently.
Claudia’s voice softened.
“I hated your father.”
Richard said nothing.
“I wanted you to hate him too.”
She looked at Mark.
“Then I loved you.”
Mark’s breathing broke.
“You slept with me while Anna was alive.”
“Yes.”
“You helped me steal.”
“I helped you take what you thought you deserved.”
“That’s not an answer.”
Claudia looked down.
“No.”
Mark’s voice dropped.
“Did you kill Anna?”
Claudia closed her eyes.
“No.”
“Did you touch her car?”
“No.”
“Did you ask someone else?”
“No.”
Mark watched her.
Then Richard asked:
“Why did Anna think you asked a mechanic?”
Claudia looked toward him.
“Because I did.”
Mark’s face hardened.
Claudia continued.
“I wanted to know how vulnerable our cars were.”
“For what?”
Her fingers tightened around her ring.
“My father died believing Bellacortes killed people and called it business.”
She swallowed.
“I spent years thinking I might make one of you understand what losing someone felt like.”
Mark whispered:
“Who?”
Claudia looked at Richard.
“Originally?”
A pause.
“You.”
Richard’s eyes went cold.
But Claudia added:
“I never did it.”
Then Richard’s investigator entered.
The old mechanic Anna referenced had been located.
He remembered Claudia.
He also remembered something else.
May you like
She had not been the only person asking about brake failure that week.
Mark had too.
