Chapter 6 - The Last Lie of Carlo Moretti
Rain began falling over Chicago shortly before midnight.
Santiago stood inside an SUV two blocks from the abandoned foundry.
Tomas checked his weapon.
Ruby sat beside him.
“You’re staying here,” Santiago said.
“No.”
“That wasn’t a request.”
“Then you’ve learned nothing.”
He looked at her.
“Sophia may need someone who understands her.”
“I understand enough.”
“Not if she’s frightened.”
Santiago hated that Ruby was right.
Again.
They entered through the rear.
Tomas’s men surrounded the property.
Santiago had given one order.
Sophia came out alive.
Everything else was secondary.
Inside the foundry, water dripped through the roof.
Old machinery cast enormous shadows.
They found Carlo upstairs.
Sophia sat behind him.
Her hands were tied.
Carlo held a gun.
“Santiago.”
“Let her go.”
“You brought the girl.”
Ruby stepped beside Santiago.
Carlo smiled.
“The famous Ruby Brennan.”
Ruby stared at him.
“You destroyed my mother.”
“No. Your mother destroyed herself by refusing to understand how the world works.”
“You mean refusing to help you steal.”
Carlo shrugged.
“Everyone steals.”
Santiago stepped forward.
Carlo raised the weapon.
“Stop.”
Sophia watched.
Santiago’s eyes met hers.
For the first time in seven years, brother and sister could communicate without anyone else.
His hand moved subtly.
Wait.
Sophia saw.
Carlo did not.
Ruby noticed too.
Santiago continued talking.
“You killed my mother.”
Carlo smiled.
“Elena was stubborn.”
“Did you cause the crash?”
“She caused it herself.”
“You chased her.”
“I wanted the key.”
“And when she refused?”
Carlo’s smile disappeared.
“She chose badly.”
Santiago kept him talking.
Tomas’s men moved into position outside.
Ruby saw Sophia shifting her wrists.
The rope was loosening.
Ruby signed subtly at her side.
Ready?
Sophia answered with one finger.
Yes.
Carlo noticed movement.
“What are you doing?”
Ruby froze.
Carlo pointed the gun toward her.
Santiago stepped between them.
“Look at me.”
Carlo laughed.
“There he is. The protective brother.”
“You were right about one thing.”
“What?”
“I spent seven years protecting Sophia the wrong way.”
Santiago looked toward his sister.
“But I finally listened.”
Sophia ripped one hand free.
She grabbed a metal object from behind the chair and threw it.
It struck Carlo’s wrist.
The gun fired into the ceiling.
Santiago lunged.
Ruby pulled Sophia away.
Tomas and his men rushed inside.
Within seconds, Carlo was on the floor.
His weapon slid across the concrete.
Santiago stood over him.
Carlo laughed through blood on his lip.
“Go ahead.”
Santiago stared.
“Kill me.”
Everyone waited.
The old Santiago might have.
Carlo expected him to.
Instead, Santiago stepped away.
“No.”
Carlo looked confused.
“You spent your life believing fear makes people silent.”
Santiago looked at Sophia.
“It doesn’t anymore.”
Police entered minutes later.
Carlo Moretti was arrested.
The evidence against him grew rapidly.
Financial crimes.
Fraud.
Conspiracy.
Obstruction.
The investigation into Elena’s death reopened.
Dr. Voss began cooperating.
Several former employees came forward.
And eventually, a former Moretti driver admitted he had been ordered to force Elena’s car off the road.
The Moretti family’s oldest secret collapsed.
Weeks passed.
The mansion changed.
Blue curtains disappeared from Sophia’s room.
Green replaced them.
Santiago learned sign language.
Slowly.
Badly.
Then surprisingly well.
Sophia began working with a trauma specialist she chose herself.
That distinction mattered.
She chose.
Ruby returned to the communication field.
The charges against her reputation unraveled when the Halston investigation confirmed her allegations.
The civil judgment was overturned.
The institute issued a public apology.
Ruby hated the apology.
“It’s four paragraphs.”
Santiago looked at it.
“You wanted five?”
“I wanted three years of my life.”
He had no clever answer.
Her mother’s nursing care was secured through restitution funds.
Maeve improved enough to communicate regularly again.
One afternoon, Ruby visited the Moretti mansion after spending the day at the university discussing a new communication program.
Sophia opened the door.
She signed excitedly.
Ruby laughed.
Santiago appeared behind her.
“What did she say?”
Ruby stared at him.
“You understood her.”
“I want to see if you did.”
Ruby smiled.
“You’re becoming annoying.”
“I’ve always been annoying.”
Sophia signed something.
Ruby burst out laughing.
Santiago frowned.
“What?”
Ruby shook her head.
“Nothing.”
“Sophia.”
His sister grinned.
Then signed slowly enough for him.
You like Ruby.
Santiago froze.
Ruby stopped laughing.
Sophia walked away with a satisfied smile.
For once, Santiago Moretti had absolutely nothing to say.
But the story was not finished.
Because later that evening, Ruby received an envelope.
Inside was a letter written years earlier by Elena Moretti.
And the first line said:
Ruby, if you are reading this, then your mother finally kept the promise she made me.
Ruby stared at the words.
Elena Moretti had known her mother.
May you like
Long before Ruby ever entered the Moretti mansion.
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