Chapter 6 - What Beatrice Saw
Beatrice did not accuse Dominic of murder.
That mattered.
She described what she saw.
Salvatore and Dominic arguing in the study.
Dominic leaving furious.
Salvatore complaining of chest pain later.
Beatrice calling for help.
Natural heart attack.
No evidence of poison.
No hidden weapon.
No cinematic crime.
Gabriel looked almost disappointed.
Then ashamed of being disappointed.
He wanted one villain to explain everything.
Life refused.
Beatrice signed:
He did not kill your father with his hands.
Pause.
He killed what your father asked him to do.
That was the wound.
Dominic took Salvatore's plan to dismantle the criminal organization and reversed it.
He told Gabriel the opposite.
He used grief.
Duty.
Masculinity.
Family.
All the words that made obedience look honorable.
Gabriel inherited the chair because Dominic told him refusing would dishonor his father.
Beatrice signed that she had tried to correct him at the funeral.
Gabriel remembered.
She had grabbed his sleeve.
Moved her hands.
He thought she was asking whether he had eaten.
Chloe watched his face collapse.
"You really didn't know any sign?"
He shook his head.
"She was losing hearing before Dad died. We had interpreters."
"That wasn't my question."
"No."
He looked at his mother.
"I didn't learn."
Beatrice signed:
You were busy.
Chloe translated.
Gabriel flinched.
Beatrice added:
So was I.
She had been ashamed of losing hearing.
She refused classes at first.
Relied on lip-reading.
Pretended she understood more than she did.
By the time she embraced ASL, Gabriel had already trained himself to treat communication as a service somebody else could provide.
Specific responsibility.
Shared, not equal.
Back at Il Canto, Dominic requested counsel.
Gabriel granted it.
That surprised Chloe.
He said, "My father built a system where a man could disappear because we were angry."
He looked at Beatrice.
"I'm not using that system to prove I changed."
The next week became chaos.
Miriam separated Gabriel from immediate operational decisions in several family companies while documents were reviewed.
Dominic's forged transfer became a real criminal matter for law enforcement.
Peter agreed to cooperate regarding false interpretation and signatures.
Beatrice obtained an independent certified Deaf interpreter for legal meetings.
Chloe was relieved.
She was not qualified to become Beatrice's permanent interpreter just because she knew ASL.
Beatrice agreed.
Then hired Chloe for something else.
Lunch.
Once a week.
Paid?
No.
Beatrice signed:
Friends don't invoice for soup.
Chloe smiled.
"Then I'm choosing the restaurant."
Beatrice agreed.
Gabriel began ASL lessons.
Badly.
His instructor, Daniel Cho, was Deaf and unimpressed by money.
On the first day Gabriel tried to schedule private sessions around meetings.
Daniel signed:
Your mother scheduled six years around your meetings.
Gabriel stared.
Then canceled two meetings.
Chloe heard about it from Beatrice and laughed.
But Dominic was not finished.
His lawyer produced documents showing Gabriel had personally approved several expansions of the criminal side after Salvatore's death.
Gabriel read them.
His own signature.
Real.
Not forged.
He looked at Beatrice.
"I can't blame him for all of it."
Beatrice nodded.
Exactly.
Dominic had lied about the beginning.
Gabriel had made choices afterward.
That distinction would define everything next.
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