Chapter 9 - THE ACCIDENT THAT WASN'T
The room seemed to lose its air.
Luca turned slowly.
“What did you say?”
Rusk looked at his attorney, then back at Luca.
“Your father's final medical records were sent to me after his death. There was a note attached. He had been asking questions about the crash that injured you.”
“My father died two years after my accident.”
“Yes.”
“He died of a heart attack.”
“That was the official finding.”
Luca's eyes hardened.
“What are you suggesting?”
“I'm not suggesting anything. I'm telling you what he told me. He believed the brake failure that caused your accident had been arranged.”
I reached for Luca's arm.
He did not move.
“By whom?”
Rusk shook his head.
“He didn't say. But he believed the person responsible had access to the family vehicles.”
Vittorio had controlled the family security operation at the time.
Luca turned to Marco.
“Find the original crash investigation. Every report. Every photograph. Every maintenance record.”
Marco nodded.
“Already working on it.”
Rusk continued.
“Your father asked me to keep the medical records safe because he thought they might become evidence. He was afraid that if he challenged Vittorio directly, something would happen to you.”
Luca looked down at the envelope.
“Why didn't you come forward after my father died?”
“Because I was afraid.”
“Everyone was afraid,” Luca said quietly. “And I paid for it.”
He ordered the meeting ended.
That night, he barely slept.
I found him in the nursery room he had begun preparing, sitting in the dark beside an unopened box of furniture samples.
“Are you thinking about your father?” I asked.
He nodded.
“I spent years believing he had accepted my diagnosis. I thought he had stopped talking about it because he didn't want to hurt me.”
“He was trying to protect you.”
“Maybe. But he left me with the wrong people.”
I sat beside him.
“You were young. You trusted your family.”
“I should have questioned it.”
“You were recovering from an accident. You were grieving. You had no reason to believe the people caring for you were lying.”
He looked at me.
“I don't want our child growing up inside this.”
“Then we build something different.”
He rested a hand over my stomach.
“Something different,” he repeated.
A knock came at the door.
Marco entered, carrying a tablet.
“We found the original crash report.”
Luca stood.
“What does it say?”
Marco hesitated.
“The brake line was cut.”
Silence.
May you like
“And the mechanic who signed the inspection?” Luca asked.
“His name is on the payroll of a company owned by Vittorio.”
