His reply isn’t a shock. “That’s why Col never left a body. He didn’t want a paper trail.”
While huffing about the abhorrent man Col was, Hugo scoots to the edge of his chair. “During my investigations, I unearthed some evidence the DA conveniently misplaced in Jorgie’s case.”
He doesn’t need to spell out why they ‘lost evidence.’ The torment on his face exposes the truth. They sacrificed justice for his sister with the hope a plea-bargain would have Roberto ratting out Col and his entity. It’s not uncommon—regrettably.
“Roberto was three times over the legal limit when he struck Jorgie, but even if he weren’t, she still would have died.” Hugo’s lips quiver as he struggles to keep his emotions in check. “Jorgie was the worst military wife. She covered Hawke’s house with knitted dollies and dick-shrinking novelties anytime he was deployed. She also couldn’t sleep.”
He swivels my laptop around to face me. It’s frozen on a grainy video showing a heavily pregnant woman just about to step off the sidewalk—rightinto oncoming traffic. She’s glancing down at her cell phone, unaware of the danger she’s about to place herself in.
“If she had been one second later, she’d still be here.”
I don’t need Hugo to play the video to understand what he’s saying. Every despicable detail is unearthed by his eyes. He’s watched the video—more than once—so he knows even if Roberto were in the right mind frame to apply the brakes, the outcome wouldn’t have altered.
“How long have you known her death was an accident?”
The shame in Hugo’s eyes switches to guilt. “Almost a month.”
My jaw ticks. Don’t ask if it is in anger or relief as I wouldn’t be able to give you a truthful answer. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“And have my guilt shifted to you?” He makes a face like he’s in the process of eating a lemon. “You had enough on your plate, Isaac. I wasn’t going to add to it.”
“The truth could have eased some of the weight on my chest. I’ve been keeping this from you for years.”
Hugo shoots me a sardonic glare. “I didn’t know that at the time, did I? I thought you had killed him.”
His tone is playful, but his words still have a whip of edginess to them. “Are you disappointed I didn’t?”
He takes a second to consider a response. After a beat, he shakes his head. “My perspective on things has changed since I became a father.”
I smirk, all too familiar with how being a parent changes you.
“Even with Jorgie’s death being an accident, I still want to seek justice for her.” Hugo’s smirk is rueful. Some of my quirks must have rubbed off on him the past five years. “Just not on Roberto.”
I hear the words he doesn’t speak the loudest. “You want the DA responsible for Roberto’s plea bargain?”
He nods without a snippet of hesitation. My office is a safe place. Roger scans it for bugs a minimum of three times a day to ensure it is. Hugo also trusts me as I do him. “He caused my family years of suffering. The grief of losing someone is bad enough, let alone hiding evidence that proves it was an accident. The pain is still there, but it’s nowhere near as crippling knowing she wasn’t taken from us.”
His reply shocks me, but it also clears some of the confusion in my head the past seven months. I could never fathom why I was acting as if Ophelia was still dead until now. Her ‘death’ was an accident, yet I still felt guilty for it. Upon discovering she didn’t die and instead chose to leave me, the grief shifted to something else. I thought it was anger, but only now am I realizing that wasn’t it. It was deception.
Ophelia lied to me for years, and the circumstances surrounding her ‘death’ caused an avalanche of events I can’t undo. Mercifully, it also gave me Isabelle. If I didn’t have Isabelle in my life at that time, I truly don’t know how I would have responded to the news Ophelia was still alive. I doubt it would have replicated the life I’ve lived the past seven months, the one where I pretend she still doesn’t exist.
Don’t misinterpret what I’m saying. Excluding the memories we once shared, I have no feelings for Ophelia whatsoever. I’m just disappointed a false event siphoned my ability to express myself. Isabelle is slowly coaxing the skill out of me, but it’s a long, drawn-out process.
Hugo is now facing the same challenges. He missed the first four years of his son’s life all because the DA who was supposed to be prosecuting the person responsible for Jorgie’s demise was more interested in hunting bigger game. If he had been honest from the start, Hugo wouldn’t have felt the need to seek his own form of justice, and I wouldn’t have been forced to intervene.
Confident I know Hugo as well as I do, I arch a brow before straying my eyes to his. “What have you discovered so far?”
He smiles, pleased by my unspoken offer of assistance.
* * *
Almost two hours later, we’ve discovered the DA’s motives were more politically stimulated than wanting Col to face justice. He had his eye on a top position, one he couldn’t get without the help of key members of the mafia underworld.
Roberto was his one and only chip, and he planned to extort it for all it was worth. Regrettably for him, Hugo snatched Roberto before he had the chance, then I hid him not just from his old life but the entire world. Alas, corrupt men don’t stop when the stakes are against them. They immerse themselves deeper, doing unethical thing after unethical thing until they’re no longer conscious of the vile, heinous men they have become.
I don’t know Vincent McGee, however, I can guarantee that’s the type of man he is. He had already taken Hugo down once, yet he still didn’t hesitate to use him for the second time for personal gain. He stomped on anyone to get to his prestigious role of governor, even his own family.
“Is Brandon aware his father was the district attorney assigned to your sister’s case?”
