She lets out a sob. "You'll hate me, Adriano."
"I won't." It's not possible for me to hate this woman. Not for something she did when she was scared to death and trying to navigate a world she knew nothing about.
"I went there, to the restaurant." She closes her eyes and lets out a mirthless laugh. "Ten minutes after I was supposed to meet Gabriele I realized I'd made a mistake. When I got there…."
The tears start to flow. I pull her into my arms, careful not to hurt her, and hold her tight. Whatever happened she feels terrible about it. If I doubted it before, I know it now. She's sobbing her heart out, expunging all the guilt and sorrow she's been carrying. I let her soak my shirt. Then when she's ready, I gently ease her back onto the pillows, ready to hear whatever else she has to say.
"I found him in the alleyway. He was bleeding and barely conscious. I could see what they did to him."
"What did you do?" If she tells me she turned and walked away this might be the thing that breaks us.
"I called an ambulance. Then I waited in the shadows watching to make sure he was still breathing until I heard the sirens. That's when I ran."
Relieved to hear she didn't just abandon him there, I close my eyes and take a few breaths. Then I open them again. Waiting in the shadows for the ambulance, not knowing if my cousin would suddenly stop breathing, how must she have felt?
"Why didn't you stay? If you'd told Gabriele all this, even after the attack, he'd probably have forgiven you."
"Perhaps," Eliza says, "but would you have? His brothers? His men?"
I have to admit it's unlikely. Though I don't know exactly what any of us would have done to a nineteen year old woman who betrayed one of us, I can't imagine we'd have let it slide. She offers me a wry smile that tells me she knows all that.
"Anyway, it wasn't just you. Marton Vida was worried my brother or I would talk. He wanted Gabriele to think the attack was some street level thing. He didn't want anyone coming after him."
"And you and your brother could say nothing to connect it to him?"
"Exactly. You heard what they did to Marco. That would have been me too if I hadn't run."
The room goes quiet again. I think about the horrors she's carried for three years, all by herself. She was young when it happened but she's still only twenty-two. A woman like her shouldn't have been put in that position.
"It's not my place to forgive you," I tell her. "Only Gabriele can do that. But I understand what you did and I don't think any less of you."
Her lip trembles and she looks as if she'll cry again. I grab her hand and hold it tight, offering her as much reassurance as I can give.
"There's something else I want to know."
She looks at me expectantly. "What?"
"How did you get away? I mean the money, the passports?"
"My parents. My dad's a lawyer, family stuff mainly but when he first graduated he worked for a firm that specialised in criminal law. He had a contact who makes fake IDs." She presses her lips together. "Don't ask me his name because I won't tell you."
"Okay,cara. Your forger is safe from me. What about the money?"
"My parents gave me that. It was the money they put aside for me to go to college."
"Did your parents know where you were this whole time?"
If they did I'll need to work on my powers of deduction because when I went to see what they knew they swore they knew nothing about Eliza's whereabouts and I believed them.
"No. I phoned now and then but I always used burners."
We talk for a little longer about her time on the run, how she found jobs that paid in cash and apartments where the landlords asked no questions. By the time she's finished I conclude I was very lucky to have caught her. My girl knew what she was doing.
"So," I say eventually. "I'll need to know everything you remember about Marton Vida."
"You're going to go after him?"
"Yes. It's time he paid for what he did."
