Chapter 13 — Clara’s Brother
Juliano stopped in the doorway.
Clara wiped her face.
“I was going to call you.”
“You’ve said that before.”
She looked down.
Elena’s fingers remained wrapped around hers.
The old brass key lay on the blanket.
Juliano walked closer.
“What does it open?”
Elena’s voice was weak.
“The original vault.”
“Where?”
“Not in the mansion.”
Clara looked at him.
“It’s beneath the old Ferraz textile mill.”
The mill had been abandoned for twenty-two years.
Juliano stared at Clara.
“How do you know that?”
She hesitated.
Another hesitation.
Another secret.
“My brother worked there.”
“He was sixteen.”
“He lied about his age.”
Elena squeezed Clara’s hand.
Clara continued.
“He was cleaning offices at night. One evening, he found your father and Adrian moving boxes into the basement.”
“What boxes?”
“Medical records. Cash. Patient files.”
Juliano felt anger rising.
Not only at his father.
At Clara.
“You knew about the vault before you entered my house.”
“I knew there might be one.”
“So you came looking for the key.”
“Yes.”
“You used my mother to get it.”
“No.”
Juliano laughed once.
Clara flinched.
It was a cruel sound.
He regretted it immediately.
But regret did not erase it.
“You expect me to believe you now?”
“No,” Clara said.
That stopped him.
She released Elena’s hand and stood.
“I expect you not to.”
Her voice shook, but she kept speaking.
“I came into your home using a fake reference. I searched rooms. I lied when you asked me direct questions. I let you defend me while I was hiding things that could destroy your family.”
“You were framed.”
“That doesn’t make me honest.”
The words sat between them.
Elena turned her face toward the window.
Clara picked up her purse.
“I’m leaving.”
Juliano stepped aside.
She reached the door.
Then he said, “Your mother’s medical bills were paid by my father.”
Clara stopped.
“I saw the account.”
Her shoulders stiffened.
“He started paying after your brother died.”
Clara turned around slowly.
“What are you saying?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“Drop something like that and stand there like it’s business.”
Her voice rose.
A nurse looked through the glass.
Clara lowered it again.
“My mother spent sixteen years wondering why the hospital never discharged her for unpaid bills. She thought it was charity.”
“It wasn’t.”
Clara’s eyes filled.
“Was it guilt?”
Juliano did not answer.
He could not.
Elena spoke from the bed.
“Your brother didn’t just see the vault.”
Clara turned.
Elena struggled for breath.
“He took a file.”
“What file?”
“A list of children.”
The color drained from Clara’s face.
Elena pointed toward the key.
“Your brother hid it before they killed him.”
The room went silent.
Then Clara’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
She answered.
A woman’s voice came through the speaker.
“Clara, if you go to the mill, your mother dies.”
May you like
The call ended.
A second later, the hospital fire alarm began to scream.
