Page 14 of Ashes
Why would she deny her role in everything? She should be glad she’s not dead too, and that my father only killed Alex and not her too.
Maybe she’s truly crazy and delusional, and her mind is coming up with things that don’t make any sense.
Unless the woman who was with Alex that night wasn’t her.
I suppose it wouldn’t make a difference, but I want to make sure, so I go find my father. He knows what happened.
“I didn’t expect to see you so soon,” my father says as he looks up at me from his desk. “Is there a problem with your wife?”
“Actually, yes.” I take a seat.
“She wasn’t a virgin?” My father’s gaze narrows.
“It’s not that. She said something. About the night Rodrigo died.”
He’s giving me nothing, just staring at me with an impassive look in his eyes.
“She claims she wasn’t with Alex, and she thinks it was me who killed him.”
His eyebrows rise. “Why are you wasting both mine and your time with this? Women are unreasonable. Who cares what she thinks? You need her to give you heirs, not her opinion. What’s gotten into you?”
“Nothing, Father. I just wonder if maybe you saw some other woman with Alex that night. Maybe it wasn’t Paola. I ask because if it wasn’t her, we have to find that woman and punish her for her part in everything.”
“It was Paola. I’m sure of it. She was there with Alex. You know what happened. She pretended her car broke down just at the edge of our territory because Alex knew Rodrigo would pass through that area. You know how crazy Rodrigo was after women. One just had to bat her eyelashes at him, and he was done for. I was working on fixing his weakness, but he stopped to help because he didn’t recognize her. Alex then jumped out and killed him, and they both ran away. I questioned a witness myself, and then I found them. They were together. When I confronted Alex, Paola ran away. I let her. She was just a silly child. Not of any consequence.”
Paola might have been seventeen then, but I doubt she was only doing what her brother told her.
My father thinks she’s innocent, but I don’t.
“It was a good thing I found them and that I let her go. A life for a life. If I killed her too, we wouldn’t have this deal that we have now. We wouldn’t be able to let go of the past and focus on bigger things,” he says. “If it weren’t for that poker game, things would’ve been different. But that’s all in the past. Don’t listen to your wife’s ramblings. She should keep her mouth shut and only speak when you ask her a question.”
I’ve always thought the poker game thing was a little suspicious. Apparently, Alex and Rodrigo were at a private club playing poker, and Alex lost. He couldn’t handle it, so he prepared a trap for my brother.
It sounds like a stupid reason, but there were witnesses.
And my father questioned them all.
Still, I don’t trust anyone other than myself. People lie all the time when it suits them.
Maybe Paola’s lying.
That’s the most likely option.
Or maybe the witnesses lied for some reason.
Maybe to pit the Santarossas and the Espositos against each other for their own benefit.
But I doubt my father would be careless when it came to figuring out the truth.
Paola has to be lying.
Maybe she thinks it’ll save her from me.
Maybe she thinks if she acts crazy, I’ll leave her alone.
I can almost admire her for coming up with that plan.
But it’s not going to work.
