Diego had warned Victor.
Victor, then in the middle of an aggressive expansion of the business, had asked the technical director to check.
– And?
He told me that Diego was exaggerating.
And who did you believe?
Victor wasn’t trying to defend himself.
Not your husband.
I closed my eyes.
He died after that.
– Yes.
Because of the materials?
– I don’t know.
I opened my eyes.
What do you mean you don’t know?
That’s exactly what it means. I don’t have an expertise to prove that the irregularities observed by Diego caused the accident. If I told you I knew that, I’d be lying to you.
After Diego’s death, Victor had ordered an internal check. He had discovered suspicious bills and differences between certain orders and deliveries. The technical director and a supplier had later been removed from the company’s projects and the documents had been kept. But the direct link between those irregularities and the fatal crash had not been established.
My anger hadn’t gone away.
“And for two years you didn’t come to tell me anything.
– I know.
But you hired me.
Then his expression changes.
I didn’t select you.
I stopped.
Victor explains to me that the employment of the domestic staff had been done through an external company. He saw my name only after I started working. “Sofia Marinescu” had not told him anything. After the marriage I had taken Diego’s name, but in the old documents that Victor had about him, other data appeared and did not immediately make the connection.
When did you find out?
“The day Mia first came in here.
I felt a thrill.
– How?
Victor’s looking at the photo in my hand.
He has his eyes.
I clenched my jaw.
And you still didn’t say anything.
Because I was ashamed.
That answer surprised me more than any sophisticated explanation.
Victor told me that, after the accident, he had wondered hundreds of times if Diego would have been alive if he had taken him more seriously. He didn’t know if the answer was yes. That’s what it was grinding him.
