Chapter 9 - Valeria tries to make it personal
Through counsel Valeria requested a meeting.
Arthur advised:
“Public office. Lawyers present.”
I agreed.
She entered without the arrogance from the banquet.
No diamonds.
No silver gown.
Gray suit.
She looked tired.
“You humiliated me.”
“You put my daughter on the floor.”
“She humiliated me first.”
“She is eight.”
“She has hated me from the beginning.”
“She missed her mother.”
“She treated me like I was stealing something.”
I set Celeste’s ring on the conference table inside an evidence bag copy photo, not the actual seized ring.
“Were you?”
Valeria stared at it.
“Celeste wanted me to help you.”
“That is not what I asked.”
“She knew you.”
“Did she give you the ring?”
“Yes.”
“At the hospital?”
“Yes.”
“Before it was repaired?”
Silence.
That was the problem.
She had forgotten the timeline.
I continued:
“The jeweler received it eleven days before hospice. You collected it two days after she died.”
Valeria’s lawyer touched her arm.
Stop.
She ignored him.
“She told me before that.”
“What?”
“That when it was fixed, I could keep it.”
“Why?”
“Because she knew you would need someone.”
My entire body went cold.
“Did she say marry me?”
“No.”
“Replace her?”
“No.”
“Take her seat forever?”
Valeria looked away.
Then:
“She told me not to let the foundation fall apart.”
There.
May you like
The truth was getting smaller.
And more believable.
