CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 6
The scandal exploded by morning.
Vivian Moretti, respected philanthropist and trusted estate manager, accused of fraud, coercion, unlawful imprisonment, and conspiracy.
The headlines were brutal.
The truth was worse.
Former staff members came forward.
A private doctor admitted Vivian paid him to create false psychiatric records.
The driver from the gala confessed after police found payments in his account.
Every fake European sighting had been purchased.
Every dead end had been designed.
Alejandro sat through each meeting with a stillness that frightened his attorneys.
Only Elena could see what it cost him.
One afternoon, she found him standing alone in the mansion hall, staring at the place where the bucket had fallen.
“I hate this house,” he said.
Elena looked around at the marble floors, the chandelier, the staircase where Vivian had smiled down at her.
“I used to love it.”
“Then we sell it.”
She turned to him.
“This was your family home.”
He shook his head.
“No. A home does not keep your pain polished under chandeliers.”
Elena cried then.
Not because she was weak.
Because someone had finally chosen her over the walls that witnessed everything.
The trial took eight months.
Vivian’s attorneys tried to paint Elena as confused, unstable, manipulated by grief.
Then the prosecutor played the audio from the hallway camera.
Vivian’s own voice filled the courtroom.
You spent years looking for her. Meanwhile, she was mopping your floors.
The jury needed less than four hours.
Guilty.
May you like
When the verdict came, Elena did not smile.
She simply exhaled, as if her body had been holding that breath for three years.
