Chapter 13 - Guilty)
The courtroom filled within forty minutes.
Bianca looked smaller.
Marcus looked angry.
Harold looked old.
Vittorio sat beside Elena.
Emma sat behind them.
Daniel stood near the aisle.
The jury entered.
The clerk read the first count.
Conspiracy to commit murder.
Guilty.
Elena closed her eyes.
Attempted murder of Elena Romano.
Bianca.
Guilty.
Marcus.
Guilty.
Harold.
Guilty.
Kidnapping and unlawful confinement through fraudulent guardianship.
Guilty.
Financial exploitation.
Guilty.
Fraud.
Guilty.
Bribery.
Guilty.
Child endangerment charges against Bianca and Marcus.
Guilty.
Count after count.
Years of deception translated into simple words.
Guilty.
Guilty.
Guilty.
Bianca began crying.
Not quietly.
She turned toward Vittorio.
"I loved you."
He looked at her for the first time that day.
"No."
She flinched.
"You loved what you thought my life could give you."
"That's not true."
He turned away.
That hurt her more than anger would have.
Marcus cursed at his attorneys.
Harold remained silent.
Sentencing occurred six weeks later.
Harold received the harshest sentence because prosecutors proved his leadership across multiple crimes and linked him to Antonio's death.
He would almost certainly die in prison.
Marcus received decades.
Bianca received a sentence long enough that Lucy would be middle aged before any realistic possibility of release.
At sentencing Elena spoke.
She did not shout.
She did not ask for revenge.
She stood before the court and said, "You stole years from me. You stole years from my daughter. You wanted me to become uncertain about my own memories because confused people are easier to control. I remember enough now. And Lucy will grow up knowing exactly what happened. She will know her mother did not leave her."
Bianca cried.
Elena returned to her seat.
Vittorio did not speak publicly.
His statement had been filed with the court.
He cared less about Bianca hearing his words than Lucy living beyond them.
After the convictions, the media eventually moved on.
Another scandal replaced theirs.
The gates outside the Boston property became quiet.
Life began becoming ordinary.
Ordinary was difficult at first.
Elena moved back permanently.
She and Vittorio did not immediately resume their marriage as though three years had disappeared.
They attended therapy separately.
Then together.
They learned each other again.
Vittorio had become more controlled.
Elena had become less willing to accept silence.
Sometimes they fought.
Sometimes they laughed.
Sometimes Elena slept in the guest room because certain memories overwhelmed her.
There was no magical restoration.
There was work.
And there was choice.
One evening Vittorio removed his wedding ring from the drawer where he had kept it since Elena disappeared.
He placed it on the kitchen table.
Elena looked at it.
"I don't know if we're the people who wore those anymore."
"Neither do I."
She looked at him.
"Is that bad?"
"No."
He pushed the ring slightly toward her.
"I don't want the old marriage back."
Elena raised an eyebrow.
"That sounds terrible."
He smiled.
"I want whatever we choose now."
She looked at the ring for a long time.
Then she picked it up.
She did not put it on.
She placed it beside her coffee cup.
"Then ask me again someday."
"I can do that."
Lucy ran into the kitchen wearing mismatched socks.
"Ask Mommy what?"
Both parents laughed.
"Nothing," Elena said.
Lucy frowned suspiciously.
Children hate unexplained laughter.
She climbed onto Vittorio's lap.
"Are we having pancakes?"
Elena looked offended.
"You insult my cooking every day."
Lucy whispered loudly to Vittorio, "She burns them."
"I heard that."
For the first time, the Romano house sounded like a home.
But one unfinished matter remained.
Emma had never explained the message that began everything.
Why she had started recording before the dog bowl incident.
Vittorio knew part of the answer.
Evidence gathering.
Bianca's suspicious call.
But he also remembered Lucy's words on that terrible day.
Emma knows where Mommy went.
One Sunday afternoon, he finally asked Lucy.
"Why did you say Emma knew where Mommy went?"
Lucy was playing with blocks.
She looked up.
"Because Mommy told me."
Vittorio froze.
"What?"
Elena turned from across the room.
Lucy continued building.
"Mommy talked from the wall."
The adults looked at one another.
Emma, standing in the doorway, went pale.
Vittorio stood.
"What wall?"
Lucy pointed toward the old stuffed rabbit they had brought from the mansion.
The one that had contained the hidden camera.
Emma suddenly understood.
The camera had not only transmitted outward.
The modified device contained a speaker.
Someone had spoken to Lucy through it.
They had assumed the camera belonged to Bianca.
What if someone else had accessed it?
Daniel examined the device again.
A memory log remained.
One connection predated Emma's discovery.
A Ridgehaven network address.
Elena stared.
"I used a tablet once."
Her memory surfaced slowly.
A nurse had left a device unattended.
Elena had found an application already connected to a camera.
She saw a child's room.
Then Lucy entered.
Elena had spoken.
Only a few words before staff took the tablet.
Lucy had heard her mother's voice months before anyone knew Elena was alive.
"What did you say?" Vittorio asked.
Elena closed her eyes.
"I think I said, Lucy, Mommy loves you."
Lucy smiled.
"Yes."
Everyone went quiet.
Then Lucy added, "And you said Emma would help me."
Emma began crying.
The mystery was finally complete.
Elena had remembered Emma's name.
May you like
She had tried to reach her daughter through the very surveillance system designed to control them.
And Lucy had believed her.
