Chapter 2 - THE SILVER ROSARY IN THE SAFE

I couldn't process what I was seeing.

"Why would Elena burn down our own home?" I asked, my voice barely a whisper.

"She didn't," a cold voice said from behind me.

I spun around.

Arthur was standing there. He had one hand deep in his coat pocket, and the shape of a gun was clearly visible through the fabric.

"Sit down, little brother," Arthur said quietly. "Or I'll make a scene that the boys will never forget."

I tightened my grip on Mateo and Lucas, shielding them behind my body.

"Let them go, Arthur. The police are already looking for your car."

Arthur scoffed. "Let them look. By the time they figure out we aren't driving, we'll be across the border."

He slid into the booth next to Victoria. She flinched, shrinking away from him.

"You're confused, Alejandro," Arthur said, nodding at the photograph in my hand. "You think you're looking at your wife committing a crime. You're not. You're looking at your wife fighting back."

"What are you talking about?"

"Elena found the bank transfers," Arthur said calmly, as if we were discussing the weather. "She found out I was draining the company. She confronted me that afternoon. She told me she was going to the police the next morning."

He leaned forward, his eyes dead and cold.

"I couldn't let her do that. So I went to your house that night. I broke in. I cornered her in the kitchen."

He pointed to the broken bracelet I was still holding.

"We fought. I tore that off her wrist. I had her pinned. I was going to kill her quietly. Make it look like a home invasion."

"But you didn't," I realized, the pieces finally snapping together.

"No," Arthur sneered. "Because she fought like a wild animal. She broke away from me. She grabbed Victoria’s raincoat from the mudroom. And then she grabbed a gas can from the garage."

My eyes widened.

"She started pouring it everywhere," Arthur said, shaking his head in disbelief. "She poured it all over the kitchen, the living room. She trapped me. She struck a match and told me that if I didn't leave, she would burn us both alive."

Elena hadn't been murdered in her sleep.

She had burned her own house down to save herself and our children from my brother.

"She was a crazy bitch," Arthur spat. "I ran out the back door just as she dropped the match. She bought enough time for the neighbors to hear the explosion. I had to flee before the sirens came."

"Then whose body did they find?" I asked, my voice trembling. "They found remains. I buried her."

Arthur smiled a terrible, ugly smile.

"Did you, Alejandro? Did you really look at what you buried? Or did you just trust the coroner?"

Before I could answer, a loud horn blasted through the ferry. The engines roared to life. We were undocking.

"Time to go outside," Arthur said, gesturing with his hidden gun toward the exterior deck. "We need some fresh air."

We stood up. I held my boys tight.

As we walked toward the heavy metal doors, Mateo tugged on my sleeve.

He reached into his pocket and handed me something small and cold.

"Mommy said to give this to you," he whispered.

I looked down at my hand.

It was Elena's gold ring. The one I had found in the walking stick.

But I hadn't given it to Mateo.