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59
LEXIE
As soon as Valentina leaves my office, I’m overcome by a sense of urgency to tell her about the man in the photo she took in Rhone. I have to. It might convince her that Marco’s the kind of dangerous that’s beyond anything we know, and she can’t confront him.
Rafael will kill me for telling her. I push the thought away. This is too important, and I don’t have time to ask permission or to win him over.
She’s not gone a minute before I’m chasing her down the hall.
“What is it?” she asks when I catch up to her.
“There’s something you should know.” My voice is low, and every word causes a small fissure in my heart. I need to be able to trust you, Lexie. “Let’s go back to my office.”
She nods and follows me. We don’t say a peep on the short walk back. I try to organize my thoughts, but all I hear is Rafael’s voice. I need to be able to trust you, Lexie.
When we arrive, I shut the door while Valentina takes a seat. Guilt claws at me, the pain of the sharp talons almost too much to bear.
“You look like you’re going to faint,” she says as I sit beside her. “Whatever it is you have to say couldn’t be worse than that my husband’s been selling information about my classmates, trying to ruin my career, gaslighting and drugging me.”
It’s close. “The picture of Marco and the man in Rhone you showed me?”
She shuts her eyes and swallows hard. “What about it?”
“I recognized him because I’d seen him before. On Francesca Russo’s phone—her boyfriend, Paolo.”
Valentina peers at me, her brow crinkled. “Paolo, who her father said set up her murder?”
I nod.
The silence is blistering, and all I can think about is the excitement in her voice when she called me after her first date with Marco. How we shrieked and gushed over the ring the day he proposed, and the hours and hours and hours we spent planning the wedding. My soul bleeds for her.
When she stares into space for too long, I take her hand.
“He was part of the trafficking ring,” she whispers, her voice so soft I can barely hear it. “Do you think that’s who Marco was selling information to?”
Yes. “I don’t know.” We don’t know, and I don’t want to overstate the facts. It’s not right. “But it’s suspicious.”
She stands and cups her elbows, pacing the room. “It’s worse than I thought. I gave him the benefit of the doubt about everything. I wanted to prove my family wrong about him. If I hadn’t been so stubborn, so full of pride, Francesca, and maybe others, would still be alive.”
I leap out of the chair, rush to her, and clutch her upper arms. “No! You’re not doing this. None of it was your fault. And we don’t know how it’s connected. That’s why it’s important to talk to Rafael.”
“No,” she says, firmly. “We’re not doing that. He’s not going to clean up after me. Do not breathe a word to him. I’m serious, Lexie.”
“Valentina, I love you, but you’re not being reasonable.”
“I’m tired of being told I’m not reasonable or thinking logically. That’s Marco’s MO. So just stop.”
That’s how he’s been gaslighting her. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
She nods. “Rafael will go straight to Marco. Do you have any idea how much Marco despises Rafael? He hates everything about him.”
The feeling is mutual.
“Marco will die before he gives Rafa any information.”
She underestimates Rafael.
“He’s never giving up any information to him. But I know how to get him to open up. He’ll tell me everything we need to know.”
