Chapter 13 - The Road Matteo Never Finished
The search of Adrian's rented property began before dawn. Kim told me afterward, not before. She knew I would spend every minute imagining what could go wrong, and I was grateful she hadn't made me wait beside a phone all night.
Adrian wasn't there. But investigators recovered a safe containing encrypted drives, paper records, and a set of vehicle keys. A technician found traces of files that appeared to link Northbridge payments to several clinics and intermediaries. The records would take time to authenticate.
There was also a receipt from a truck maintenance company dated two days before Matteo's crash.
Kim placed it on the table between us.
“It's a lead,” she said. “Not proof by itself.”
I read the name of the company. It was the same name that appeared on an old invoice Matteo had tucked into his envelope.
“Why would he have this?” I asked.
“Maybe he was tracing the vehicle. Maybe somebody wanted him to find it. We have to keep both possibilities open.”
Leonardo stood beside the window, his face rigid. He had learned the hard way that anger could not turn a lead into evidence.
Detective Kim's team located the truck's former driver, a man named Paul Mercer, who had left Illinois after the crash. Mercer agreed to speak with investigators through counsel. He admitted that he had been paid to park the truck near a specified route that night. He claimed he had been told the road would be empty and that the plan was to frighten someone, not kill him.
“Do you believe him?” I asked Kim.
“I believe he knows more than he has told us. We're corroborating his account.”
“Did he see Matteo?”
“He says he saw headlights and tried to move. The crash happened seconds later.”
I pressed my hand over my mouth. For months I had imagined a random driver making a terrible mistake. Now there was the possibility that somebody had put a truck on that road deliberately.
I thought about the last time Matteo had kissed me goodbye. He had taken his keys from the bowl by the door, then come back because he'd forgotten his phone. I had teased him about losing his own head if it weren't attached. He had grinned and kissed me a second time.
I had never known I was counting down the last ordinary minutes of my life.
Bennett, the prosecutor, explained that Mercer's account was only one piece of the case. Investigators needed financial records, communications, vehicle evidence, and testimony strong enough to withstand cross-examination.
“Please don't rush it because of me,” I said.
She studied me. “You understand that could mean a long wait?”
“I've already waited eight months for the truth. I can wait longer if the truth is real.”
Later that afternoon, Bianca asked to speak to investigators again. She had retained a new attorney and was considering a formal cooperation agreement. I did not attend the interview, but Kim told me the parts she was authorized to share.
Bianca admitted that she had intercepted Matteo's letter and concealed Emma's marriage from Leonardo. She said her father had convinced her that the merger would collapse if Matteo's estate passed to his wife and child. She also described a meeting where Adrian had referred to “solving the pregnancy problem” through an arrangement with the clinic.
“I thought he meant an adoption,” Bianca reportedly said.
The words made me sick. An adoption without my consent was not a kindness disguised as paperwork. It was a plan to take my child.
“What about Matteo's death?” I asked.
“Bianca says she heard her father and Adrian discussing a truck after the crash,” Kim said. “She claims she didn't know about it beforehand.”
“And do you believe her?”
“We'll test her story against the evidence.”
That evening Leonardo and I visited Matteo's grave. The cemetery was nearly empty, the trees bare against a gray sky. I had avoided coming since the funeral because I couldn't bear the finality of his name carved in stone.
Now I stood in front of it with my hand resting on the curve of my stomach.
“I found your brother,” I said softly. “It took longer than it should have.”
Leonardo bowed his head.
“He was trying to protect people,” I continued. “I think he'd be angry that we spent so long being afraid.”
Leonardo gave a small, broken laugh. “He'd be angry with me for a hundred things.”
“Probably.”
I took the courthouse photograph from my coat pocket and held it where I could see Matteo's smile.
“I'm going to tell our baby about you,” I whispered. “Not only how you died. How you lived.”
For the first time, the promise didn't feel impossible.
On our way out, Leonardo said, “I want to create a fund for the families affected by the clinic. Independent administration. Legal support, counseling, whatever the families actually ask for.”
“Don't put your name on it like a monument,” I said.
“I wasn't planning to.”
“Ask Nora to help design it. Ask the women what they need.”
“I will.”
My phone rang before we reached the car. Kim's voice was sharp with contained relief.
“Adrian Vale has been arrested.”
I stopped walking.
“Where?”
“At a bus terminal in Indiana. He had identification in another name and a large amount of cash. He's in custody pending the legal process.”
I looked at Matteo's grave through the iron gate.
“Will he talk?”
“We don't know yet.”
For a moment I waited for triumph. None came. Adrian's arrest did not bring Matteo home. It did not return Nora's lost months with Lily. It did not erase the fear that had lived inside my body.
But it meant there might finally be a courtroom instead of another threat.
May you like
And this time I would walk into it with my head up.
END OF CHAPTER 13
