Chapter 13 - Sophia Disappeared Before Midnight
The unexpected name belonged to Elena Moretti.
Dante's aunt.
Carlo's younger sister.
A woman Sophia had met twice.
Elegant.
Soft-spoken.
Chairwoman of several charities.
Beloved in Chicago society.
According to the ledger, Elena had authorized the earliest transfers to companies Rizzo controlled.
Dante refused to believe it.
Not immediately.
“Elena raised Isabella after our mother died.”
Sophia sat beside him in the library.
“That doesn't make the records false.”
“She hated Rizzo.”
“Maybe eventually.”
Dante rubbed his face.
Every betrayal had come from someone close.
Sophia understood now why trust felt dangerous to him.
“Talk to her.”
“She'll lie if she's involved.”
“Then give her a chance to tell the truth.”
Elena arrived at nine.
She looked at the ledger.
Then closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
Dante went still.
Sophia remained silent.
Elena explained.
Twenty-two years earlier, Carlo Moretti wanted to expand the family into legitimate businesses.
Rizzo opposed it.
Elena secretly helped Rizzo move money because she believed Carlo's plan would weaken the family.
Then people died.
Carlo.
Eventually Thomas.
Elena claimed she had never authorized violence.
She tried to leave Rizzo.
He blackmailed her.
For twenty years.
“Why didn't you tell me?” Dante asked.
“Because I watched what your father became.”
“And you thought hiding this would protect us?”
“I thought shame would destroy the family.”
Dante laughed bitterly.
“Secrets did that better.”
Elena began crying quietly.
Sophia almost felt sorry for her.
Almost.
Then Elena said something strange.
“Rizzo always believed Thomas kept another copy.”
Sophia frowned.
“We found his records.”
“No.”
Elena looked at her.
“Not financial records.”
“What?”
“A recording.”
Sophia remembered the cassette.
“We found that.”
Elena shook her head.
“A video.”
Thomas had apparently recorded a meeting between Rizzo, Damian and another associate days before Carlo died.
Proof of conspiracy.
Nobody had ever found it.
Sophia thought of her father's missing watch.
The stolen watch had been returned.
Why steal something worth nothing?
She suddenly remembered the watch's unusually thick back.
Her father once joked it was impossible to repair.
Sophia stood.
“The watch.”
Dante understood.
It was upstairs in evidence storage.
Inside the back cover, hidden beneath the mechanical plate, Luca found a micro-storage card.
Modern enough to have been added years after the photograph.
Thomas had updated his evidence.
They played the file.
The video was old and grainy.
Rizzo.
Damian, much younger.
A third man.
They discussed Carlo Moretti.
A plan to sabotage his car.
Sophia felt sick.
Dante watched without expression.
Then the third man turned toward the camera.
Dante whispered, “No.”
Sophia looked at him.
The man was Dante's godfather.
Antonio Bellini.
Luca's father.
Luca stared at the screen.
“My father?”
No one spoke.
Antonio had died five years earlier.
But the revelation destroyed Luca.
“I spent my life protecting this family because of him.”
Dante put a hand on his shoulder.
“You are not your father.”
Those words mattered.
Especially coming from Dante.
Sophia stepped outside to give them privacy.
Her phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
A photograph appeared.
Her mother.
Leaving a grocery store that afternoon.
Below it:
Come alone or she learns what your father died protecting.
Sophia's blood turned cold.
A location followed.
She knew she should tell Dante.
She knew every rule.
Every warning.
Every terrible thing that happened when people tried to handle danger alone.
Then another photograph arrived.
Her mother entering her home.
Closer angle.
Someone was watching her.
Midnight. Alone.
Sophia looked through the glass doors toward Dante.
He was talking to Luca.
Already carrying the weight of another betrayal.
Sophia made the worst decision of her life.
She left through the garden entrance.
No driver.
No security.
No warning.
At eleven fifty-three, Dante walked back into the library.
“Sophia?”
No answer.
He checked the guest house.
Empty.
Her phone lay on the kitchen counter.
Beside it was a handwritten note.
I'm sorry. I had to protect my mother.
Dante read it once.
Then again.
His face went completely still.
Luca entered.
“What happened?”
Dante handed him the note.
Luca swore.
Dante looked toward the darkness outside.
Every instinct that had kept him alive for years screamed at once.
He had told Sophia she was his weakness.
Now somebody intended to prove it.
May you like
And seven minutes before midnight, Sophia Bennett was walking alone into a trap.
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