Chapter 232

• VALENTINA
• ~•~
• The wind picked up hard that evening, rattling the windows like it wanted inside. I stood at the small table in my suite with the lamp turned low, the latest envelope from Harlan open in front of me. Pages spread out neat. Fresh ink. Payments to precinct officers around the time my father got arrested. Coded lines that matched the address in Ricci’s stolen letter. Facility. Transfer. V.R. I traced each one with my finger, steady, marking the connections in the notebook I kept hidden. Every new line fit. Every new line pointed straight at Gustavo. Not just watching. Not just looking the other way. Knowing. Maybe ordering. The ball felt years ago now. The pool. The bath. All those moments when his hands on me felt like the only real thing. Now they felt like part of the same lie. The noose around my trust pulled tighter with every page.