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A dozen questions popped into her mind, but now wasn’t the time to delve into them. She had to get back to figuring out what to do with Grandfather and Bianca.
“It doesn’t matter, Celia. There were multiple sources.” She hoped it would put the matter to rest. But Celia was like a bloodhound, pouncing on her statement.
“What other sources? Wait–don’t tell me they’re all Sophia’s friends.”
“I don’t know.” Ana pinched her nose. “Celia, listen, I can’t tell you. All I can say is they’re not related to each other in any way.”
Auntie had made sure of that, largely based on Gio’s insistence. He hadn’t wanted to falsely implicate the Russos based on one anecdote alone. So Auntie had stayed up all night until she’d found two other sources to corroborate Sophia’s story.
All three of them attested to Celia’s betrayal.
But the other woman could not accept it. “Ana, come on, you have to tell me who they were. I swear I will not go after them. If you see any news or rumors leaking their names, you can have Gio behead me or whatever, okay? Just–you have to give me a chance to defend myself.” Celia drew in a long breath before regaining her composure.
Her voice dropped back down to that easy, disarming tone. “If you just tell me who they are, I can confirm if they have bad blood with me. If they don’t, then I’ll accept I’m guilty and take whatever punishment you dole out.”
Was there anyone who didn’t have bad blood with her?
But Ana bit her tongue.
Resting her head back against the wall, she stared blankly ahead, debating what to do. She knew Celia was manipulating her, sowing doubts in her mind. But it was highly effective. It had been so easy for the Family to believe the rumors about Ana, even though they were grossly untrue.
Wouldn’t it be just as easy for someone to start false rumors about Celia? Especially if it involved people who hated Celia, like Sophia.
Ana hadn’t known about their history. Auntie and Gio also seemed unaware. What if the other sources were also somehow targeting Celia?
A nurse passed by her in the hall, eyeing her strangely.
Knowing she didn’t have time to waste, Ana inhaled and decided to take a wild leap of faith. “Fine…I’ll tell you.”
“Oh, thank God. Thank you, Ana.” The relief in her voice was palpable.
Lowering the phone, Ana scrolled through her messages until she found the screenshots Gio had forwarded from Auntie.
There were three sources in total: Sophia Cazzola, Claudia Monti, and Cora Longo. Sophia and Cora were from Philly, while Claudia was from Jersey. Auntie had implied that they all came from reputable families and were trustworthy. But, apart from that, there was no obvious connection between them.
It seemed to have stumped Celia as well because she was quiet for several minutes after Ana rattled off their names. “They’re not in Sophia’s circle…” Celia murmured, frustrated. Her voice grew muffled. It seemed like she had set aside the phone and was moving around. The sound of papers shuffling became apparent.
Several minutes passed.
Time was ticking away.
“Celia…”
What was she doing? Ana prayed that she’d done the right thing by disclosing the names and, hopefully, hadn’t just handed them to the villain herself.
“Celia, I need to–”
“I got it!”
“You did?” Ana was incredulous.
“I just knew there had to be something,” Celia said triumphantly. “The Monti name sounded awfully familiar. It’s because I met him–Claudia’s dad that is–when he was in Philly for some business meetings around two years ago. In that meeting, they kept mentioning Sophia’s husband and Cora as well.”
“Mentioning what about them?”
“Just that they were already investors in the business and had been seeing great returns. The owners were trying so hard to woo Monti and my dad into becoming investors as well. But Dad thought it was all a big Ponzi scheme.” She snorted.
“But Monti went ahead with it?”
