He Let Me Grieve a Lie, Now He Begs Forgiveness novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: Why I Erased You

Elio walked to the podium while the garden was still shouting.

He moved her father aside with one hand, and her father let him.

"I'm Elio Marcato," he said into the microphone. "I'm Chiara's husband. I'm going to say this once, so please write it down."

The noise dropped.

"Three years ago I agreed to fake her family's deaths. I helped hide them. I installed cameras in my wife's bedroom and watched her grieve for a year."

"When she fell apart, I signed her into a private clinic, and I kept her there after she asked me to let her go."

"I never once checked whether the story I was told about her was true."

A reporter in the front row lowered her phone.

"Nobody here forced me," Elio said. "Chiara did nothing wrong, then or now. Everything bad that happened to her, I helped do."

"Mr. Marcato," someone called. "Are you turning yourself in?"

"I'm turning in everything I have," Elio said. "I've already called my lawyer."

He stepped back from the microphone.

Chiara stood a few feet away with Taylor's phone in her hand and her heart going hard.

Then she walked to the podium herself.

She did not look at her father, or her mother, or the girl in the white dress.

"I'm Chiara Pellegrino," she said. "Three years ago you called me a killer. Some of you did it on camera. I'd like you to remember what you said."

She looked at the lenses, one after another.

"I'm not going to say anything else today. My husband has told you the truth about himself. I'm not saying whether he is still my husband."

"Not yet," she added.

She heard Taylor let out a whoop at the back.

Two police cars were pulling up the long drive.

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