Chapter 5 - He Told Me the Bridge Accident Was a Lie—Then Someone Broke Into My Room
The sedan vanished before security reached the road.
Inside, Cedric spread three documents across his desk.
A police report.
A bridge maintenance log.
And a hospital admission record with my mother's name.
I read the date twice.
"She was admitted the next morning?"
"Yes."
"But they told me she drowned."
Cedric nodded.
"The report was falsified."
My mouth tasted metallic.
"And my brother?"
"He wasn't in the river. A witness saw him taken into a vehicle."
I looked at Tomaso.
He wouldn't meet my eyes.
"You knew," I said.
"I suspected," he answered.
"That's a comfortable word."
Cedric did not defend him.
"Vittorio was moving money through a transport company," Cedric said. "Your mother found the records. She intended to testify."
"Why would she tell you?"
"She didn't. She told my father."
His father had died six months later, according to every article I'd read.
"And you?"
Cedric looked at the dark window.
"I was twenty-two. I believed the men who raised me. I helped them search for a witness without understanding who they were hunting."
"My mother."
He nodded.
There was no excuse in his face.
Only shame.
I walked out before he could speak again.
In my room, the lamp was on.
I'd left it off.
The drawer beside my bed hung open. My suitcase had been emptied onto the rug.
A small envelope rested on my pillow.
Inside lay the wooden frame from my Fishtown apartment.
The glass had been removed.
Behind the photograph, someone had hidden a folded piece of paper.
I opened it with shaking hands.
It was a child's handwriting.
ANNA, IF THEY SAY I'M DEAD, DON'T BELIEVE THEM.
Below the sentence was a name.
The name my brother had used only when he wanted to make me laugh.
May you like
And beneath it, written in fresh ink, were four words.
I'M COMING FOR YOU.
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