Home / They Wanted a Confession. I Seized Their Ship / Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

All Chapters of They Wanted a Confession. I Seized Their Ship: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

50 Chapters

Chapter 31

Someone was pressuring her to sign a statement confirming the accounts were settled.She didn’t want to accuse anyone without evidence, so she had stored what she could preserve.At the end of the letter was a sentence entirely unrelated to the accounts.“If anyone tells you that loving someone means enduring these things for them, do not believe it.”I put down the paper and covered my face.Rosa didn’t hurry me to get up.A long time later, I looked back at the box.The staff had removed the old recording separately for professional handling.On its label, my mother had written three names.Vito.Ferro.And Dario’s father.After the recording was restored, I didn’t listen alone.The lawyer, Rosa, and the person responsible for receiving the materials were all there.I sat closest to the door, my mother’s letter beside me.At first, there was static.Then I heard my mother.Clearer than I remembered.Younger.“An engagement cannot resolve the missing money. I won’t let Elia sign anyth

Chapter 32

When the recording ended, no one spoke immediately.“How will these materials be used?” I asked.The lawyer explained what needed to be checked next.The accounts corresponding to the ledger entries.The people on the recording.My mother’s movements before and after the relevant events.I nodded and handed over the materials.That night, for the first time, hearing my mother’s voice didn’t keep me awake until dawn.I was still sad.But my sadness no longer contained only a story my father had told over and over.She wasn’t merely a woman who died in an accident and left a daughter behind.She had made choices.And preserved evidence of them.A few days later, Ferro was required to cooperate with the investigation.As the news spread, my father finally changed his approach.He no longer threatened to disown me.Through his lawyer, he offered to return all the assets in my mother’s name that had not yet been transferred.There was only one condition.I must stop providing family materia

Chapter 33

Only part of the interview had aired when the discussion began.Some people said she had indeed been raised without boundaries.Others began asking why, if I understood how damaged the family was, I couldn’t show understanding toward someone else who had been hurt.Selena sent me the link, followed by several furious voice messages.I didn’t respond immediately.Because that same afternoon, Livia’s lawyer had already contacted mine.They proposed a draft statement.If I confirmed that Livia had lived under my father’s influence for years and that many of her actions had not reflected her true intentions, she would provide more information about the money and the old harbor arrangements.Reading the final sentence, I suddenly laughed.Terms again.As though even the facts she knew required me to give something before she would reveal them.“I won’t sign.”The lawyer passed on my answer.Less than an hour later, Livia emailed.“You know what Dad is like. Why are you determined to force m

Chapter 34

Halfway through dinner, the lawyer called.Livia had decided to provide new materials.I stepped outside to answer.“What is she asking for?”“This time, she isn’t asking you to issue a statement.”I leaned against the wall and slowly exhaled.“She handed over an old phone,” he continued.It contained some messages between my father and Enzo from before the old harbor incident.And a call she had never released.In the recording, my father told her:“Once she signs, you can do whatever you want with that money.”I said nothing.The sea breeze drifted down the street, damp against my skin.She had finally discovered I wasn’t the only person he was willing to trade away.When responsibility needed a name, my father would push her forward too.Time didn’t suddenly move faster as the evidence accumulated.Over the next few months, I still had to explain the same things again and again.Why I left the boat.Where the confession was placed.What state the iron gate had been in.Whom I called

Chapter 35

“I can state what has been established,” I told the lawyer. “I won’t explain what was in his heart.”Whether he knew the fire might spread.Whether he planned to return eventually.Those questions belonged to the evidence and his own account.Not me.During one pretrial proceeding, I saw Enzo in the hallway.He had lost weight. His tie sat crookedly.When he saw me, he instinctively stepped forward.Someone accompanying him told him to stop.He looked at me, his voice hoarse.“Elia, I’m your brother.”I met his eyes.“I know.”For a moment, hope lit his face.Then I continued.“That’s why I called you that night too.”His expression stopped.“You hung up.”People passed through the hallway, but the distance between us seemed suddenly immense.Enzo lowered his head. For the first time, he didn’t tell me I was too sensitive.But I no longer needed that acknowledgment.Back at the office, the lawyer showed me the newly organized evidence list.One item was testimony from a security employ

Chapter 36

When I described Livia saying she had lost the ledger, I heard someone turn a page.When I reached the confession, my fingers curled involuntarily.I continued.I told them I called my father after the fire began. He declined.I called Dario. He demanded that I sign first.I said I had tried to push open the gate and couldn’t.Someone asked, “At the time, did you believe they would return?”I paused for a long time.“At first, yes.”My voice was quieter than I expected.“I thought they simply hadn’t seen how large the fire had become.”“And later?”“Later, I told them.”I raised my head.“I told them the fire was getting closer.”When the call recording played, the room was frighteningly quiet.My voice broke in and out beneath wind and coughing.Dario’s was perfectly clear.Then you’d better hurry.I didn’t look at him again.The questions that followed weren’t easy.Had I been involved in long-standing financial disputes with the family?Had I grown resentful over the engagement?Aft

Chapter 37

I opened the window, then the front door, and sat beside it until I could breathe steadily.Then I messaged my therapist.Not asking her to fix me immediately.Only telling her I might need help that day.That afternoon, I requested half a day off.Lucia replied quickly.“The work is covered. See you tomorrow.”No questions.No demand that I prove how badly I was hurting.In the therapist’s office, I finally admitted something.“I kept thinking he would tell someone to open the gate at the last moment.”The tears came as soon as I said it.Not because the new testimony surprised me.Because it took away my last excuse.My father knew the fire was spreading.He knew the gate was still locked.And he still wanted my signature first.My therapist handed me tissues. She didn’t suggest my father might have had his reasons.She simply asked what I needed most now.I thought for a long time.“I don’t want to keep using his choices to decide whether I deserved to survive.”After saying it, I c

Chapter 38

After she left, I slowly packed my things.I had just shut down the computer when my phone lit up.A letter forwarded through the lawyer.From Livia.The first line read:“Are you satisfied now?”I looked at the words and handed it back.“Please don’t forward anything like this again.”I no longer wanted to explain why she had ended up here.That was her question to answer.After the old harbor case reached a conclusion, I visited the cemetery for the first time.Not following my father.Not wearing the black dress he required.I bought a bouquet of pale flowers and climbed the long stone steps with Rosa.My mother’s photograph was set into the headstone.My father had chosen it. Her expression was composed, her lips faintly curved.Not the woman I remembered, whose smile showed her teeth.I crouched and placed the flowers.I had prepared so much to say.That I had left the estate.Whether she had been frightened before the accident.That I was sorry I had believed my father for so man

Chapter 39

We arranged to meet the next day.I arrived ten minutes early.The materials on the desk weren’t some dramatic confession that settled everything at once.They contained many small details.Who called.Who paid.Who requested the replacement of personnel.Who took the maintenance records after the accident.Those fragments gradually dismantled the simple accident my father had described for years.When I finished reading, my fingers were ice-cold.“Had she already realized by then?”The lawyer said my mother had asked the driver to take her directly to another office, where someone was waiting to meet her.The car never arrived.I looked down at the route.That ordinary afternoon, perhaps my mother had thought she was only going to a difficult meeting.I suddenly remembered her doing my hair that morning and asking what I wanted for dinner.I had said, “I’ll decide when you get home.”That sentence stayed with me for years.That evening, my father requested a meeting through his lawyer

Chapter 40

“Did she refuse to trade my engagement for it?”My father glanced at the lawyer.“Those were business arrangements. You’re managing a port now yourself. Some things can’t be separated just because you want them to be.”“She separated them.”“And that’s how she drove everyone into a corner!”His voice rose sharply.I didn’t move.His chest heaved twice, as though he had only just realized no one here would leave because he was angry.He lowered his voice again.“I only wanted her to stop.”I looked at him.“Is that what you thought at the old harbor too?”His face tightened.“I didn’t want you dead.”“But I told you there was a fire.”“It was a chaotic situation.”“Someone called you and asked whether to open the gate.”He fell silent.Looking at his face, I suddenly understood why I had needed to come.Not to wait for an apology.I still wanted to see whether, outside the estate, he was truly so frightening.And the man in front of me was simply someone who kept shrinking his own respo

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