Chapter 12 - THE DEBT REPAID
Luca didn’t look away.
He stood up, walking around the desk to stand right in front of me.
“I didn’t kill your father, Claire. I tried to save him.”
I shook my head, stepping back. “Vanessa said—”
“Vanessa only knows what Marcus told the FBI,” Luca interrupted gently. “Your father, Thomas, was the best mechanic I ever had. And he was loyal. He found the tracker. He came to me in secret.”
“And you didn’t believe him,” I cried.
“I did believe him,” Luca said. “But Marcus found out Thomas knew. Marcus sent his men to silence your father. I couldn’t stop them in time, but I got to Thomas before he died.”
Luca walked over to a small safe behind a painting. He opened it and pulled out a thick, sealed envelope.
He handed it to me.
“Thomas knew he wasn’t going to make it. His last words to me were a request to protect you and your mother. To keep you out of this life.”
I opened the envelope.
Inside were fifteen years' worth of bank statements.
Anonymous deposits. College tuition paid by ‘scholarships’ I hadn’t applied for. The sudden drops in our property taxes whenever my mother fell behind.
“You?” I whispered.
“I couldn’t bring him back,” Luca said softly. “And I couldn’t expose Marcus without starting a war that would have gotten you and your mother killed. So I waited. I watched over you.”
“Why did you hire me?”
“I didn’t,” Luca smiled sadly. “You applied on your own. When I saw your name, I couldn’t turn you away. I wanted to see the woman Thomas’s daughter had become.”
I looked at the bank statements, the Zippo lighter, and the man standing before me.
He wasn’t a monster. He was a man who had carried the weight of everyone else’s sins for decades.
“Vanessa tried to use his memory to break you away from me,” Luca said. “She knows you’re the only person I trust outside of my family.”
I wiped my eyes, putting the lighter in my pocket.
“She failed.”
Luca smiled, a genuine, warm expression.
“Go home, Claire. Tell your mother her house is safe. Tell her Thomas was a brave man.”
I turned to leave, feeling the heavy burden of the past fifteen years finally lift from my shoulders.
“And Claire?” Luca called out.
I looked back.
“When you’re ready to come back to work,” Luca said, “Emily is going to need a lot of help with Leo. And I’d rather have family watching him.”
I smiled.
“I’ll be back on Monday.”
May you like
I walked out of the mansion, the morning sun bright and warm against my face.
The past was finally buried. And the future looked completely clear.
