Page 102 of Hidden Memories

I know Theo is with Santi, but it doesn’t stop the itch under my skin. I want my son close—where I can see him, where I can protect him. But I also need to shield him from how big thisis.

We lied to him and Owen about the fire, said it was a stable hand burning brush.

But this?

Right now, Theo doesn’t know he should be afraid. He’s still in that space where nothing has changed, where the world is exactly as it was yesterday.

If he hears what’s said in this office, that illusion will shatter. I can’t let his innocence be stolen like that.

Enzo, Ava, Rio, and Callum are seated around the table, their expressions grim. There’s no banter, no lightness—only a sharp focus that makes my stomach knot.

“Kat,” Enzo says, his tone clipped, professional.

But I think I catch some strain in his voice.

“We went through more of the flash drive data before handing the drives to the feds. There’s something you need to know.”

I brace myself.

Ava leans forward, her hands clasped on the table. “Nicholas wasn’t just embezzling money from Pacific Dreams. He was funneling millions through Castellanos Enterprises—your father’s company—into offshore accounts connected to the ’Ndrangheta.”

The room tilts. “My father’s company?”

She nods, her expression pained. “Yes. It looks like your father may not have known—most of the transactions were buried under shell companies—but Nicholas used not only Pacific Dreams but also Castellanos Enterprises as a front for laundering money for the Mafia. It’s why they’re after you. Those drives hold the evidence.”

A sliver of hope overcomes me. “But if I handed them over that makes me safe?”

I already know one of the answers—the Mafiaprobably doesn’t even know I’ve handed them over. But the other answer, I didn’t expect.

Rio folds his arms, and speaks bluntly, “Unfortunately, the type of people you’re dealing with don’t think about one potential piece of evidence, they think about every loose end possible. The fact that you’ve ever had those drives, ever been aware of their contents? That’s a loose end.”

The ’Ndrangheta thinks I know something, and that means I could be as damning as those drives.

I’m suffocating under the enormity of it all. Nicholas was a liar, a manipulator—but this? Dragging my father’s company into his mess, putting everyone in danger? I knew he was capable of cruelty, but this was a new level of betrayal.

If he wasn’t dead, I’d relish every chance to put him behind bars.

“The fire wasn’t random,” Enzo says, his tone sharp. “They’re here, Kat. In Echo Valley. Watching. Gabriel and Anton found the cameras at Julia’s, and there could be more. They won’t stop.”

I glance at Callum, hoping for a shred of reassurance, but the bright ocean-blue eyes that reminded me of vacation, the ones from Café Luna, are now joyless and somber.

His response is compassionate at least. “I wish I could have helped you, Kat, solved this in one go.”

The others nod, their faces solemn.

I swallow hard, the lump in my throat almost too big to get past.

Ava offers me a small, encouraging smile and speaks from a deeper place I don’t understand, but it tells me she knows what she’s saying is true from experience.

“Don’t let yourself feel like you’ve done somethingwrong. You’re innocent. None of this is your fault, and not a single person around this table blames you for any of this.”

I should believe this is the beginning of ending all this mess, but one thing consumes my mind.

My father.

Should I tell him what I now know?

The thought of him twists my insides. Castellanos Enterprises is his legacy. Now, not only is Pacific Dreams gone but my father’s life’s work. I should tell him, right?

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