Chapter 9 - The Daughter Javier Erased)
Clara stared at her husband.
"You have a daughter?"
Javier said nothing.
Dante read Elena's note again.
Sofia.
A name no one in the family had ever heard.
Clara laughed once, but there was no humor in it.
"Fourteen years."
"Clara."
"Fourteen years married to you."
"Not now."
"When?"
Javier looked toward the guards.
"This is irrelevant."
Dante folded the note.
"Your father didn't think so."
Javier's eyes burned.
"You don't know anything about my father."
"I know he trusted a daughter you abandoned more than he trusted you."
Javier lunged.
Thomas blocked him.
Dante did not move.
"Where is Sofia?"
Javier glared at him.
"I don't know."
Clara answered.
"You're lying."
He turned toward her.
"Stay out of it."
She stepped closer.
"No."
For years Clara had adjusted herself around Javier's moods.
Lowered her voice.
Changed subjects.
Pretended not to notice.
That version of her had disappeared.
"Who is Sofia?"
Javier looked away.
Dante called Margaret Hale again.
This time she answered immediately.
"I am twenty minutes away."
"Who is Sofia?"
Silence.
"You read Elena's letter."
"Yes."
Margaret sighed.
"Sofia Romano is twenty-one."
"Where is she?"
"Cambridge."
Clara gripped the back of a chair.
"Twenty-one."
Javier and Clara had been married fourteen years.
The child had been born seven years before their marriage.
Dante asked, "Who is her mother?"
"Anna Bell."
The name meant nothing to him.
Margaret continued.
"Anna worked for Vincent's manufacturing company. She and Javier had a relationship when they were both very young. Sofia was born shortly before Javier turned nineteen."
"Why did nobody know?"
"Vincent knew."
"And?"
"Javier refused to acknowledge her."
Dante looked at him.
Javier laughed bitterly.
"I was eighteen."
"You were old enough to create a child."
"I had no money."
"Your father was a millionaire."
"That was his money."
Dante's voice became cold.
"And what did you do when you had your own?"
Javier said nothing.
Margaret continued through the phone.
"Vincent supported Sofia quietly. When he learned Javier had been stealing from one of the family companies, he revised the trust."
"Giving control to Sofia."
"Eventually. She had to reach twenty-one and choose whether to claim it."
"When did she turn twenty-one?"
Margaret answered.
"Six days ago."
Samuel Price slowly sat down.
Clara understood.
"The foundation audit."
Dante looked at her.
"Javier accelerated everything because Sofia became eligible."
She nodded.
"If Sofia claims Vincent's trust and Javier is disqualified, he loses access to whatever he's been trying to control."
Dante asked Margaret, "How much is the trust worth?"
"Current valuation is approximately one hundred and eighty million dollars."
Even Samuel stopped moving.
Dante looked at Javier.
All of it suddenly made sense.
The false beneficiary documents using Mia.
The stolen foundation funds.
The panic over Elena's investigation.
The attempt to frame Clara.
And now the desperate effort to destroy evidence.
Javier needed control before Sofia appeared.
Dante asked, "Does Sofia know?"
"Some of it."
"Does she know Javier is her father?"
"Yes."
"Does she know about the trust?"
"I was scheduled to meet her Monday."
Javier shouted.
"No."
Everyone turned.
Margaret's voice came through the speaker.
"Javier?"
He walked toward the phone.
"She gets nothing."
Margaret replied calmly.
"That is not your decision."
"It's my father's money."
"No. It is the trust's money."
"I'm his son."
"And he wrote the documents precisely because you thought that sentence entitled you to everything."
Javier swept a tool tray off a workbench.
Metal crashed across the garage floor.
Mia screamed from the hallway.
Dante turned instantly.
She had slipped away from the bodyguard and followed them.
Leo stood behind her.
Dante crossed the room.
"I told you to stay outside."
Mia started crying.
"I thought you were leaving."
Dante knelt.
"I'm not leaving."
Leo looked at Javier.
"Who is Sofia?"
Javier stared at the children.
Something in Leo's expression reminded him of Elena.
Not the face.
The refusal to look away.
Javier said, "Nobody."
Dante stood.
"That's enough."
Javier laughed.
"You're going to turn my own daughter against me now?"
"You did that twenty-one years ago."
Javier's eyes flashed.
"You think you're a better father?"
Dante put one hand on Leo's shoulder.
"I don't have to think."
Javier looked at Leo.
"Ask your father what he was doing when your mother died."
Dante's body went rigid.
Leo looked up.
"Dad?"
Javier smiled.
"There. That's the face."
Clara whispered, "Javier, stop."
"No. Dante wants truth."
He pointed at Dante.
"Tell them."
Dante did not answer.
Javier continued.
"Tell Leo where you were the night Elena drove alone in the rain."
Leo stared at his father.
Dante's voice was quiet.
"I was in New York."
"Why?"
Dante looked at Javier.
Because the answer had haunted him for three years.
"I was meeting Javier."
Leo frowned.
Javier smiled.
"Your mother called him five times."
Dante felt every word.
"He ignored her."
"Stop."
"Five times."
Dante took a step forward.
Javier continued.
"And by the time their perfect father called back, Elena Romano was already dying beside the highway."
Mia began sobbing.
Leo stepped away from Dante.
Not far.
Only one step.
But Dante felt it.
"Dad."
Dante looked at his son.
May you like
Leo asked the question Dante had spent three years asking himself.
"Why didn't you answer Mom?"
