Chapter 7 - The Offer
Arturo sent his terms through an attorney who withdrew from the matter almost immediately.
Clara would retract her allegations.
Elise would return to his care.
The records would disappear.
In exchange, he would release the recording and leave Dominic’s organization alone.
Clara listened while Nora summarized the message.
Then she asked, “Does he understand how insane that sounds?”
“People accustomed to control often mistake losing it for a negotiation.”
Elise sat beside Clara on the apartment sofa.
She had insisted on hearing the terms.
Her hands were clasped so tightly that her fingers had gone pale.
“I’m not going back.”
Clara turned toward her.
“You’re not.”
“I need everyone to stop discussing it like it’s a possibility.”
Nora closed her notebook.
“Then let’s be clear. It isn’t.”
Elise exhaled.
They spent the next hour discussing choices Elise could actually make.
Who attended her medical appointments.
Whether she wanted to speak with investigators that day.
What clothes she wanted.
What she wanted for dinner.
At first, every question frightened her.
Then she asked for pizza.
Clara ordered three kinds because neither sister knew what the other liked.
They ate on paper plates.
Elise hated olives.
Clara remembered that she always had.
It felt like finding a small piece of the world intact.
Meanwhile, Dominic met with Ruiz through counsel.
He provided records about Arturo’s dealings with Alexei, including transactions he had once chosen not to question.
Some of those records implicated his own associates.
Others raised questions about his conduct.
He handed them over anyway.
Leo was furious.
Not because he wanted Clara abandoned.
Because he knew what Dominic could lose.
“You built all of this,” Leo said when Clara later visited Dominic’s attorney’s office.
She had arrived early and heard the raised voice through the open door.
Dominic answered quietly.
“Then I know what it’s built on.”
Leo saw Clara and stopped.
She almost apologized for overhearing.
Then decided she was tired of apologizing for arriving in rooms where men were finally saying the truth.
Dominic invited her in.
Leo left after asking whether she and Elise had enough groceries.
The question was so unexpectedly gentle that Clara smiled.
“We have enough pizza for a week.”
“Then order vegetables.”
After he left, Clara looked at Dominic.
“You may go to prison.”
“Yes.”
“And you’re still cooperating.”
“Yes.”
She sat across from him.
“I don’t know what to do with how I feel about you.”
He remained very still.
“You don’t have to do anything.”
“I’m grateful. I’m angry. I’m frightened. Sometimes I miss sitting outside your office answering ordinary emails.”
“I miss that, too.”
“But it wasn’t ordinary. I was hiding, and you were—”
“I know.”
She looked down at her hands.
“I don’t want gratitude to make a decision for me.”
“Then don’t let it.”
He leaned back, leaving the space between them untouched.
“If you want to see me when this is over, ask me then.”
“What if I don’t?”
“Then I’ll still be glad you’re alive.”
Clara believed him.
It made leaving harder.
It also made leaving possible.
Two days later, investigators located a financial courier linked to Arturo.
The man had arranged access to a private safe-deposit facility.
Inside were original documents, cash records, and several recordings.
One file carried Madeleine’s name.
Ruiz called Nora first.
Then they came to the apartment together.
Elise sat beside Clara.
Neither sister reached for the other immediately.
They knew what the visit meant.
“We recovered a recording,” Ruiz said.
Clara felt the room recede.
“Do we have to hear it?”
“No.”
Elise’s hand found hers.
Nora spoke gently.
“We can tell you what it establishes.”
May you like
Clara swallowed.
“Tell us.”
