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“Glad you’re home,” she says, reaching out to squeeze my hand. “Bex let me eat popcorn for dinner.”
“Did she now?”
She giggles, opening one eye to look at us both. “Night night,” she says, yawning loudly.
“Night,” Bex says, heading out of the bedroom a moment later. By the time I’ve tucked Alicia in, Bex’s at the end of the corridor. I call out to her from the bedroom doorway.
“Come back here.”
She stops but doesn’t turn, her shoulders slumping as she stands on the spot. “Now,” I add in a growl.
She spins around, walking toward me with fury in her eyes. “You don’t get to speak to me like that. Not after what you did.”
“You want me to control my temper? Do you want me to listen to other people? You need to take some of your own advice. You’ve decided I killed him without even listening to my side of the story.”
“Why should I believe you?”
“Because I’m telling the truth. What do I stand to gain from Oswald’s death?”
“You literally offered to kill him for me. Or did you forget that?”
I take her hand, dragging her into the nearest open bedroom. I push her onto the bed. “Sit there and stay there,” I tell her, pulling over an armchair.
“Why should I listen to you?” she asks as I sit down.
“If I wanted to kill Oswald, I would have done it. If I wanted to kill Sofia, I would have done it. I am not a man to deny what I’ve done in life, not to those who matter. You asked me not to kill him. I did not kill him. I’ve just had a call from my brother pretty much confessing.”
“How are you even here? I thought you were under arrest.”
“I have a good lawyer, but that’s not what we’re talking about. Ernesto has given me a month to decide about all this.”
“All what?”
“Either I back down, send you home, and let him inherit, or he plants evidence that sees me sent down for Oswald’s killing.”
“Seriously?”
“You think I’d make this up? Toby heard the call. You can ask him if you don’t believe me.”
“So you’re telling me your brother killed Oswald?”
“I remember something my father said to me. He asked me who stood to gain the most from Sofia’s death? Ernesto. Who will gain if we split up because you believe I killed your ex?”
Her brow wrinkles. “Ernesto?”
“Precisely. Son of a bitch has been working behind the scenes to ensure I don’t take over the famiglia.”
“So what are you going to do?”
“You’re saying you believe me?”
“I wouldn’t go that far, but what you say fits with what Ernesto said to me outside the church.”
“What did he say?”
“Told me you were a killer, and I’d be next. Why tell me that unless it’s to try and screw things up between us? Out of nowhere, he told me you’d killed Oswald not to help me but just for fun. Laughed while he said it. Then he said I should encourage you to back down, and he’d make sure I’m protected from harm.”
“That’s a threat. I will not have him threaten you.”
