Chapter 4 - HELENA'S VERSION
Helena requested a meeting. Vincent agreed only with his attorney and two investigators present.
She arrived in a black coat, her silver hair pinned perfectly. “I want my brother,” she said.
“You have him,” Vincent replied. “You just don't have the version of me who believed you.”
Helena sat. “Marco acted on my instructions, but you need to understand why.”
“I understand that you imprisoned my wife.”
“She was going to take the trust away.”
“It was never yours.”
“She was going to destroy everything Father built.”
Vincent placed a photograph on the table. It showed the hidden room, the chain fixed to the pipe, and the locked food cabinet.
Helena glanced at it. “She became difficult. She tried to escape. We had to secure the room.”
“You chained her.”
“She was a threat.”
“She was Clara's mother.”
Helena's composure cracked. “You were never home. Elena thought she could change how this family operated. She was going to take Clara away.”
“Did she tell you that?”
“Marco told me.”
“Marco told you what he needed you to believe.”
His attorney slid forward a transfer request for the trust, signed by Helena two days after Elena's supposed death. Vincent's authorization had been forged.
“You stole from the trust and tried to hide it behind a murder,” he said.
Helena rose. “You'll regret turning against me.”
“You made yourself a stranger.”
The investigators escorted her out for further questioning.
At the hospital, Elena was awake beside the window. Clara slept in a chair, holding her mother's fingers.
“Helena came,” Vincent said.
Elena's face tightened. “What did she say?”
“That she was protecting the family.”
Elena looked down. “She always made cruelty sound like duty.”
Vincent sat beside her. “I should have questioned what happened.”
“Yes,” Elena said softly. “You should have.”
He accepted the words without defending himself.
“Will Clara remember me?” Elena asked.
May you like
Vincent glanced at their sleeping daughter. “She already does.”
Elena closed her eyes. For the first time since he had found her, she allowed herself to rest without listening for footsteps behind the wall.
