Vanessa crossed one leg over the other.
“Melissa, let’s be realistic. Your grandson assaulted an adult woman. That’s serious.”
“But you agreed—”
“I agreed to witness your generosity,” she cut in. “Don’t put words in my mouth.”
I turned to Adrien.
“You’re comfortable with that? Your son goes to juvenile detention while you take my house?”
A flicker of shame crossed his face and vanished.
Vanessa laid a proprietary hand over his.
“Adrien trusts me. He knows I only want what’s best for our family.”
“Matthew is just a child.”
“A manipulative child,” she snapped. “A problem since the day I entered your lives. Just like you.”
Germano cleared his throat, but she was already warming to herself.
“Do you know how exhausting you both have been? If you’d surrendered sooner, I wouldn’t have had to work so hard.”
I tilted my head.
“Work so hard?”
That did it.
Vanessa leaned back in triumph.
“Of course. Do you have any idea how much effort it took to make Adrien forget about you? Every blocked call, every forgotten birthday, every weekend he stayed away, every time he didn’t visit—you think that happened by accident? It was me.”
Adrien’s head lifted sharply.
“What did you just say?”
“Oh, come on, darling,” she said with a dismissive laugh. “Don’t act shocked. You knew I managed things. I cut her out because she was a burden, and it worked. You can barely look at her now.”
I saw something inside my son crack.
Germano stood abruptly.
“Vanessa, we should focus on the paperwork.”
“Sit down,” she snapped.
And to my amazement, he did.
Then she turned back to me, fully drunk on victory.
“Do you know the best part of all this, Melissa? When you die—and with that weak heart, I doubt it’ll take long—we’ll sell this apartment for about four and a half million. I already have a developer interested in the whole building. With that money and what I’ve set aside, Adrien and I are moving to Florida. We’ll open a seaside hotel. Start fresh.”
“And Matthew?” I asked softly.
She waved one dismissive hand.
“Military school. Once he turns eighteen, he’s not our problem anymore.”
“That’s enough,” Adrien said, jumping to his feet. “What the hell are you talking about? We never discussed any of this.”
Vanessa gave him a pitying look.
“You didn’t have to. I handle everything, like I always have. I handled your mother. I handled your son. I handled our future.”
“You handled my mother?”
“Someone had to. Women like her never know when to let go.”
I bit the inside of my cheek hard enough to taste blood.
I needed her to keep talking.
“And the silver candle holder?” I asked.
Her smile turned vicious.
“Oh, that? Brilliant, wasn’t it? The kid came home late, looking at me with those judgmental eyes, and I was sick of him. So I taught him a lesson. One good hit with that silver candle holder your late daughter-in-law gave us. Then I threw myself against the wall, bruised the right places, cried at the right time, and your son believed me. Like always.”
Adrien looked physically ill.
“You hit him first.”
“Of course I did.”
“Vanessa,” Germano hissed, but she was beyond stopping.
“We were almost done anyway. She was going to sign. We were going to get the house and be in Florida by spring, just like the plan.”
“Just like the plan with Robert? Fernando? John?” I asked.
Everything in the room stopped.
Vanessa’s face drained of color.
Germano stood so fast his chair scraped the floor.
“That’s enough. We’re leaving.”
“No,” I said.
And my voice changed.
All the frailty went out of it at once.
For the first time since they walked in, I sounded exactly like the lieutenant I used to be.
“This is only the beginning.”
I crossed to the bedroom door and opened it.
Leticia stepped out with a laptop in her hands.
“Good afternoon,” she said coolly. “I’m Leticia Donovan, private investigator. Everything you’ve said in this apartment has been recorded in high-definition video and audio.”
Vanessa went white.
“That’s illegal.”
“No,” I said. “It’s my home. I can record whatever happens on my property. And you have just confessed to fraud, coercion, conspiracy, and assault of a minor.”
Germano spun toward the front door, but Leticia moved into his path.
“If I were you,” she said, “I wouldn’t.”
I took out my phone and dialed.
“Lieutenant Sores? You can come up now.”
The footsteps in the hall came almost immediately.
Carlos entered with two uniformed officers behind him.
“Melissa,” he said with one sharp nod, “did you get what we needed?”
“Everything,” Leticia answered, lifting the laptop. “Full confession.”
Carlos turned to them.
“Vanessa Jimenez Ruiz. Germano Uoa. You are under arrest.”
Vanessa’s voice shot up to a scream.
“This is entrapment. Adrien, say something. Tell them to stop.”
Everyone turned to my son.
He was sitting on the edge of the chair with his face in his hands.
When he looked up, he seemed to have aged ten years inside an hour.
“Everything you told me about my mother,” he said hoarsely. “About Matthew. It was all lies, wasn’t it?”
Vanessa’s eyes filled with real fear for the first time.
“Sweetheart, no. I did it for us.”