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“This is from Jason,” I said. “Where did you get this from?”
“Is it true?” Her eyes were red as she looked back at me. She was clearly trying to hold back tears. She seemed to be spiraling. I had to appease her. I didn’t need to upset her further.
Also, what was the point of lying to her? I nodded my head. The letter was a last attempt it seemed Jason had made to get my attention or to get my brothers, especially Matteo, off his back. Jason had gotten involved, knee-deep in a situation he couldn’t handle, a situation he thought I could control.
“Tell me…everything. Tell me what happened.”
I sat the letter down. “I can only tell you what I know. And that isn’t much…”
She stared at me. “I find that hard to believe. That letter is written to you. He was asking for your help. Why didn’t you help him?”
“How could I? He thought I could control Matteo, but I had nothing to do with my brother’s business.”
“I find that hard to believe. If he wrote to you, if he asked you for help…he must have believed that you could help. But you didn’t help him. You let him die.”
“I did no such thing. Jason interfered in something he should have stayed far away from. You saw the ledgers. I’m sure you saw the accounts that only he could have set up, but you’re trying toblame me for his death when he was just in too deep. He took money from people he shouldn’t?—”
“He wasn’t a thief?—”
“Then explain the accounts, Mya. Maybe he wasn’t a thief, but he was clearly up to no good. How much did Jason make as a civil servant? Sixty-thousand a year tops? And yet those deposits you saw were for more than 20,000 bucks sometimes up to 100,000 dollars. How do you think he got that money and why do you think he was hiding it?”
She shook her head and sat down slowly in an uncomfortable side chair next to the door. Her big eyes stared at me and seemed to implore me for answers that I knew she didn’t want to hear. “I don’t know, but I won’t believe Jason was a thief.”
“Maybe the money wasn’t stolen, but it wasn’t his. Unless he did something to earn it…”
Her eyes narrowed. “What are you trying to say?”
I didn’t need to say the unspoken.
“You’re trying to say they were payoffs?”
I shrugged. “What else could they be?”
“No. I refuse to believe that. Jason would never.”
“Then why was he asking for my help? He was involved in a situation he should have never involved himself in, and he paid dearly for it.”
She shot up. “You could have helped him. In his letter, he was asking for your help.”
“He was asking me for a way out of a mess he created. What was I supposed to do? Also, I never saw this letter until just now.”
“I don’t believe you. You could have helped. Matteo is your family. In his letter, Jason sounded scared. He knew everything Matteo did was being monitored by you. He knew you had control over your family, that you were the head of the entire operation, and that Matteo and the rest just did your bidding?—”
“Matteo doesn’t work for me. I can’t control what he does?—”
“That’s bullshit and you and I both know it. Just admit it, Dario. Jason’s life didn’t matter to you. When he turned to you for help, you ignored him. You didn’t even try to help him.”
“I never saw this letter, Mya. You will have to believe me. And Jason was no saint, Mya.”
“And you’re the devil.”
With that, she stormed away. I sat back and sighed. I picked up the envelope and stared at it.
Who had left it there for her to see? I didn’t even know if the letter was real or not, but I knew it was something I had never seen until she shoved it in my face.
Did I know about Jason? Yes. Did I know that he was doing jobs for Matteo? Of course. But I didn’t know what those jobs were. As long as Matteo didn’t get involved with my business, I stayed out of Matteo’s way and he stayed out of mine. Until recently, it seemed. Now he wanted me dead.
And now, as far as Mya was concerned, I’d let Jason die.