🌸 The Boy Who Heard the East Wing Knock

Chapter 13 - Before the Crash

Thiago did not deny it.

That frightened Mariana more than denial would have.

In the diner parking lot, with the ocean wind pushing napkins against the curb and Samuel asleep in the back seat of the security SUV, she repeated the caller's words.

Ask Thiago where he was before the crash.

Thiago looked toward the dark street.

"I was at the Bel-Air house," he said.

"With Lucía?"

"No."

The answer sat between them.

Mariana folded her arms, not because she was cold. "With who?"

He turned back to her. "My mother."

That was not the answer she expected.

Thiago's mother, Elena Almeida, had died when he was twenty-three. At least, that was what every magazine profile said. The shipping prince orphaned young. The aunt who raised him. The empire preserved by blood and discipline.

"Your mother is dead."

"Yes," he said. "But the night of the crash, I found a letter from her in my father's old office. It said if Beatriz ever tried to control the foundation, I should look behind the chapel wall at the Bel-Air house."

Mariana waited.

He rubbed both hands over his face.

"I went without telling Lucía. We had argued that morning. She wanted to report irregular transfers. I told her not to embarrass the family until we had proof. She said I cared more about the Almeida name than about what was right. She was probably correct."

The honesty was ugly and necessary.

"What did you find?" Mariana asked.

"Nothing. The wall had already been opened. Whatever my mother hid was gone. On my way back, my brakes failed on Mulholland. Lucía was driving separately behind me. She swerved to avoid me."

Mariana closed her eyes.

"Beatriz said she caused it."

"Yes."

"And you believed her."

He looked at the car where Samuel slept.

"I was sedated, broken, angry, and proud. Beatriz handed me a villain I could survive hating. I took it."

Mariana wanted to be furious with him. Part of her was. Lucía had died believing too many lies because the man who loved her had hesitated when courage was expensive.

But she also knew hesitation. She had kept Samuel hidden for six years. She had told herself fear was wisdom because it wore practical shoes.

"The caller knew about the Bel-Air house," she said.

"Only four people knew. Me, Lucía, Beatriz, and my mother through the letter."

"Your mother was dead."

"So the caller is either Beatriz trying to divide us, or someone who found what my mother hid."

His phone rang.

Camila.

He answered on speaker.

"We found a chapel reference in the foundation audit," she said, no greeting. "A payment to restore stained glass at St. Agnes, Bel-Air, six years ago. The contractor invoiced Beatriz personally, but the funds came from Lucía's trust."

Thiago looked at Mariana.

"The chapel wall," he said.

Camila continued. "There's more. The contractor died last year, but his widow still has his job notebooks. She says he kept one page separate because the woman who paid him scared him."

"Where is the widow?"

"Pasadena. She agreed to meet tomorrow morning."

Mariana heard herself say, "We're coming."

Thiago looked surprised.

"You need rest."

"I need the truth. And Samuel needs me to stop letting other people decide which room I'm allowed to stand in."

He accepted that without argument.

Good.

At the SUV, Samuel stirred as Mariana buckled him properly. He opened one eye.

"Are we going home?"

She looked toward Thiago.

Home had become a complicated word.