Chapter 13 - The Last Lie.
.Anna did not want to see Victor again.
She agreed because four missing years had taught her that unanswered questions could become cages.
The meeting took place in a federal interview room with Agent Keene behind the observation glass.
Victor sat at a steel table in a gray detention uniform.
Without the dark suit and armed men, he looked smaller.
Anna remained standing.
"You said there was another truth."
Victor smiled faintly.
"Luca never told you why you were driving alone that night."
Anna felt a flash of uncertainty.
Victor leaned forward.
"You were leaving him."
The sentence hit exactly where he intended.
Fragments of memory surfaced.
A suitcase in the trunk.
An argument in Luca's office.
Anna telling him she could not raise Sofia around violence.
Luca refusing to answer.
Victor watched her face and knew he had found pain.
"You see?"
Anna said nothing.
"You had finally understood what Luca was. You were taking Sofia away."
The door opened behind Anna.
Luca entered despite the agreement that he would remain outside.
Keene began to object through the intercom, but Anna raised one hand.
"Let him stay."
Luca looked at Victor.
"Finish the story."
Victor shrugged.
"She was going to disappear with your daughter. I stopped her before she destroyed you."
Anna turned toward Luca.
"Was I leaving?"
He did not lie.
"Yes."
Pain moved through her, but so did relief.
Truth, even painful truth, was cleaner than manipulation.
Luca continued.
"You told me you would come back if I shut down the crews Victor controlled and made the foundation legitimate."
Another memory returned.
Anna standing in the rain near the front door with two-year-old Sofia asleep against her shoulder.
Luca saying, "Give me a week."
Anna answering, "You have until tomorrow."
She had not been disappearing.
She had been forcing him to choose.
Victor had chosen for them all.
Victor's face tightened.
"You were weak because of her."
Luca looked at him.
"No. I was weak because I let men like you convince me fear was loyalty."
Victor slammed his palms against the table.
"I built you!"
"You buried my wife alive."
The room went silent.
Anna stepped closer.
"You want the last word because you think it gives you power."
Victor stared at her.
"It doesn't."
She turned and walked out.
In the hallway, Luca did not reach for her.
He stood several feet away and let her decide the distance between them.
"I remember the argument," Anna said.
"I remember being afraid of the life around Sofia."
Luca nodded.
"You were right."
"Are you still that man?"
He took a long breath.
"Parts of me are. I am trying to end the parts that should never have existed."
Anna looked through the glass at Victor.
"Then don't do it for me."
Luca met her eyes.
"I am doing it for Sofia."
A small voice came from the end of the corridor.
"And maybe a little for Mama?"
Sofia stood between Rosa and a physical therapist, holding a walker decorated with blue ribbons.
Anna laughed through tears.
Luca's face softened.
Sofia took one careful step toward them.
May you like
Then another.
The family that had been broken by lies moved toward each other without anyone forcing the last few feet.
