Dogs Among Withered Roses - Chapter 12

“If you take this hand, we’ll become family.”

Behind a wall riddled with holes like a prison visiting room, the priest’s recitation of the penitential rite flowed meaninglessly. Amidst it, the angelic voice that had once tempted the young Berenice echoed softly in her mind. As if erasing that siren’s song of a beautiful voice, Berenice quietly shook her head.

“…Run. Go somewhere safe! It’s dangerous here.”

The voice, tickling her ears with words she could barely make out, urged her to flee. It followed the moment Berenice, having resolved her hesitation, once again let slip an opportunity disguised as a “what if.”

Then as now, she lacked the strength to reject the angel’s hand that approached while crushing roses beneath its feet, and the temptation that came with it. Yet the voice pushing her back and urging her to run was rather persistent.

“If they find you, they’ll definitely kill you. Go. Hurry. You didn’t see anything here. Forget everything. Understood?”

She couldn’t clearly remember the face because she never saw it properly, but the urgent hand that turned young Berenice around and pushed her forward, along with the voice that had not yet deepened with puberty, grew clearer each time she recalled the memory and left a deep trace in her mind.

Like the thin white mark that remains even after removing a rosary ring. Berenice slowly blinked as if ignoring the reddish light cast over the silver roses.

The sin of coveting heaven without knowing her place.

The sin of being too ignorant to distinguish heaven from hell.

They were the sins she’d “failed to discover,” continuing from the moment twenty years ago when Berenice decided to become Ricardo’s sister until now.

It was the same when, fifteen years ago, on the day the flames of sin covered the angel’s back, she threw away the only chance she had to run and chose to remain in hell forever.

Of course, the omniscient God and His Son might already know everything… but when she only intended to repeat the same sins even if another chance appeared, how could forgiveness be possible?

In truth, she didn’t even want forgiveness.

Surely she wasn’t so shameless as to hope for that.

Whether she ran away from this comfortable hell or not. Since she never confessed the sins she failed to discover to anyone, she would never be forgiven.

From the day she decided that instead of becoming a powerless victim, she’d become the perpetrator who used power, it had already been one of the predetermined endings. Swallowing the heavy guilt pressing down on her back and the sickening sense of disgust, Berenice lightly resigned herself.

“The Lord has forgiven your sins. Go in peace.”

“Thank you.”

After offering a brief greeting to the priest beyond the wall, Berenice straightened the knees that had been pressed against the floor the entire time. As she stepped out of the suffocating confessional, Erkin, who had finished his confession earlier, rose from his seat.

“Looks like your confession ended early?”

“I’m innocent. I haven’t committed any particular sins.”

Innocent, he says. How ridiculous.

“Innocent” was one of the words least suited to a member of the mafia. Berenice let out a quiet scoff at his shamelessness and stuffed the white mantilla hanging over her head roughly into her handbag.

“Where’s Ricardo?”

Berenice looked around, searching for one of the troublesome angels who had disrupted her concentration throughout her confession. Erkin unfolded the coat he was holding and gave a small nod.

“He left a moment ago.”

“That works out. I’ve already said goodbye to Ricardo, so we should….”

Berenice, who had tightly closed her coat to keep the wind out, suddenly trailed off and tilted her head. A woman of small stature walked quickly in the direction Erkin indicated.

“Miss?”

Erkin asked in puzzlement, but Berenice didn’t answer. She passed him and quickened her steps. The moment she stepped out of the church, she saw a woman talking with Ricardo.

The woman turned at the sound of Berenice’s heels and waved brightly.

“Berenice, it’s been a while.”

“…Chiara.”

Berenice called the woman’s name with a sigh, then straightened her back and broke into a wide smile. As Berenice put on a warm smile that lifted her cheeks sweetly, Erkin approached behind her without any sign of hurrying.

Chiara glanced once at Erkin, who was nearly two heads taller than her, as if surprised, then looked back up at Berenice. As if to show their familiarity, she stepped closer in a gentle manner, and her voice dropped low enough that only Berenice could hear.

“Confession took longer than I expected.”

“You know how it is. I’ve committed plenty of sins.”

“I know. I know very well.”

“Looks like I’ll have to step into the confessional again soon, though.”

“I heard you’ve been swamped because of Russo. Sorry about that.”

“Yeah, you should feel a little sorry.”

“….”

Berenice looked with satisfaction at the small, delicately cute face stiffening awkwardly. Then Ricardo jerked his chin as if telling them to stop chatting there and get moving.

Watching Ricardo head off with Chiara quickly following behind him, Berenice bit her lip for a moment as if thinking it over, then turned toward her car.

“Going home?” Michele asked. He had been watching Ricardo and Chiara while waiting for Berenice.

Berenice shook her head while fastening her seatbelt. “No. Valentiera Mansion.”

“I thought you weren’t going to the luncheon?”

She’d just decided to skip the luncheon without notice, using the excuse that she was unbelievably busy cleaning up the mess left by Russo running off with the tribute money. I know, right? Berenice gestured with her chin as if to say, Why ask?

“You saw Chiara. Let’s go.”

“Who is she?”

Erkin asked while fastening his seatbelt after Berenice. Berenice lightly bit her lip for a moment. She considered pretending she hadn’t heard him and ignoring the question, but since Michele and Andre both knew already, leaving Erkin as the only one in the dark felt awkward.

“Chiara Volonte. She’s one of Valentiera’s members.”

Female members other than Berenice were rare, but anyone could tell that much even standing on their head, couldn’t they? Erkin stretched a sidelong glance at her as if hinting for more, so Berenice reluctantly added, as if telling him to take it and be done with it.

“She specializes in information gathering, so she doesn’t show her face very often.”

“….”

“As you can see if you’ve got eyes, she and I don’t get along very well. Feels like she’s aiming for the back of my head, but she might be holding back because I carry the Valentiera name. Still, she does her job well.”

That’s why I haven’t hit her yet…. The muttered words that followed carried a strangely sharp edge, as if the rest wasn’t important.

“Don’t tell me you’re changing your plans and attending the luncheon just to look for a chance to hit her?”

“I might hit you first before that.”

Berenice smiled brightly, like a woman who’d just been proposed to by the man she loved. If necessary, she looked ready to swing the handbag in her hand like a baseball bat.

Michele’s snickering laughter ended the exchange, and the familiar silence filled the car. But it wasn’t uncomfortable or awkward.

***

Fortunately, none of the executives blamed Berenice.

Judging from the chatter among the soldatos, even the executives had never experienced something like this before, so they didn’t even have the time to be angry.

Moreover, today marked two weeks since the embezzlement incident, and even though Russo still hadn’t been found, the boss, Ricardo, simply focused on continuing the meal without saying much. Since the boss acted that way, the executives had no grounds to step in and question Berenice about right or wrong. And it wasn’t as if Ricardo overlooked it just because she was his sister, so there was no excuse to add unnecessary remarks.

The reason Ricardo helped out yet still turned a blind eye was obvious.

Massive profit.

Not only did the land Berenice purchased skyrocket in value the moment the redevelopment plan for the area was confirmed, but Vincenzo Marino’s refrigerated transport vehicle factory suffered enormous losses because of the faulty parts Russo stole. As a result, the money Ricardo earned over the past two weeks actually surpassed the profit from the redevelopment district’s land value increase.

After earning that much, worrying over a single month’s tribute money would only invite people to sneer and say how petty it was. So even setting aside Russo’s outrageous stunt, the tribute he ran off with was small enough to ignore and treat as nothing more than an absurd anecdote.

Because of Berenice’s business sense, which never seemed to know loss, everyone continued watching to see whether she would properly handle the remaining cleanup while the Family maintained its search forces throughout the Belloc area.

But why….

Erkin frowned faintly, unable to understand as he watched Berenice, who looked as if she was about to bury her nose in her plate.

From his perspective, the luncheon atmosphere wasn’t bad. No one casually threw out criticism or even hinted at reproach, yet Berenice behaved as if she hadn’t eaten in several meals the entire time.

If she were truly hungry, that would be one thing. But as far as he remembered, when they traveled from the church to Valentiera Mansion, Berenice didn’t look particularly hungry. Having spent every moment with her for the past two weeks, Erkin clearly noticed the difference from her usual behavior.

There was no need to look far. Compared to just last night, she was eating now as if the food might vanish in the blink of an eye.

So focused on the food in front of her, she even quickly finished the gelato Francesco personally brought over with a worried expression.

At this rate, she might end up with an upset stomach. And as expected, after eating too much too quickly, Berenice clutched her stomach and said she felt sick, claiming she must have indigestion. She stood up from her seat, saying she would go rest in the bedroom she used at the mansion.

Ignoring the call from Marcello, the consigliere, as if she hadn’t heard it at all, Berenice left the dining room. Erkin’s gaze followed behind her like a shadow.

After quietly observing the various gazes that had been watching Berenice scatter in different directions, Erkin also disappeared silently, as if he’d never been present in the dining room at all.