Chapter 6 - The Enemy Was Sitting at Their Table
Roman refused to believe Carlo.
Then Isabella sat down.
And began to cry.
That was when he knew.
“Mother?”
She couldn't look at him.
Roman's voice changed.
“You knew?”
“Only for the first year.”
Matteo stepped backward.
“What?”
Isabella explained.
Vittorio had suffered a serious heart attack six years earlier.
The family announced his death because that was what Vittorio wanted.
He believed enemies would stop looking for him.
He spent the following year living privately at a recovery center under another name.
Then he disappeared completely.
“I thought he died there,” Isabella whispered.
“But there was no body.”
“No.”
Roman stared at her.
“You let us bury an empty coffin.”
Tears ran down Isabella's face.
“Yes.”
Roman walked away.
Sophia followed him onto the terrace.
Rain had begun falling over Chicago.
For several minutes, Roman said nothing.
Then:
“I don't know who I am anymore.”
Sophia stood beside him.
“You're not your father.”
“You don't know what he did.”
“Neither do you.”
Roman looked at her.
“That's the point.”
Sophia touched his arm.
“For five years I blamed you for a truth I didn't understand.”
Roman closed his eyes.
“Don't forgive me because tonight got worse.”
“I haven't forgiven you.”
He almost smiled.
“Good.”
“But I'm still here.”
Roman looked at her.
That mattered more than forgiveness.
Carlo eventually gave them the location of Vittorio's last known residence.
A small house near Lake Geneva.
Roman, Sophia, Matteo, and Isabella went together.
No army.
No dramatic confrontation.
Just a family looking for answers.
They found Vittorio alive.
Older.
Thinner.
Walking with a cane.
Roman stood in the doorway.
His father stared at him.
“Roman.”
Roman's hands curled into fists.
“You watched us bury you.”
Vittorio lowered his eyes.
“Yes.”
“You let Mother mourn you.”
“Yes.”
“You let your sons believe you were dead.”
“Yes.”
Roman moved closer.
Sophia touched his hand.
That small contact stopped him.
“Why?”
Vittorio invited them inside.
The truth was uglier than anyone expected, but simpler too.
Vittorio had protected Carlo for years.
When Daniel threatened to expose everything, Vittorio followed him the night of the crash.
“I wanted the documents.”
Sophia's face hardened.
“Did you cause the crash?”
“No.”
“Were you chasing him?”
Vittorio closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
Sophia turned away.
Daniel had driven too fast on wet roads while trying to escape.
Vittorio arrived after the crash.
He called emergency services anonymously.
Then fled.
“I was a coward,” he said.
Roman stared at him.
“You could have saved us five years of questions.”
“I thought silence protected the family.”
Roman laughed without humor.
“That seems to be our favorite excuse.”
Vittorio looked at Sophia.
“Your father was a better man than me.”
Sophia's voice remained cold.
“I already knew that.”
Roman almost smiled.
Vittorio handed Sophia a small wooden box.
Daniel's final records were inside.
Along with an unopened letter addressed to her.
Sophia read it alone.
Daniel explained that he never wanted revenge.
He wanted the truth exposed and the theft stopped.
Most importantly, he wanted Sophia free from the world of secrets that had consumed both families.
His final line broke her heart.
A family name is only something you're given. Character is what you choose.
Sophia returned to the living room.
Roman stood beside his father.
“Are you coming back to Chicago?” Roman asked.
Vittorio shook his head.
“No.”
“You don't get to disappear again.”
Vittorio looked at him.
“What do you want?”
Roman's answer surprised everyone.
“Accountability.”
Not revenge.
Not punishment delivered privately.
Accountability.
Vittorio agreed to speak to attorneys and investigators.
Carlo would do the same.
The old Duca way of burying problems ended that night.
But when Sophia and Roman returned to Chicago, another problem waited.
Sophia packed a suitcase.
Roman stood in their bedroom doorway.
“You're leaving.”
“For a while.”
His face revealed nothing.
Only his eyes betrayed him.
“How long?”
“I don't know.”
Roman nodded.
He didn't stop her.
That hurt more than if he had.
Sophia zipped the suitcase.
“You aren't going to ask me to stay?”
Roman looked at her for a long time.
“Five years ago, your father asked me to protect you.”
Sophia waited.
“I thought protecting you meant deciding what you could handle.”
He shook his head.
“I was wrong.”
Roman stepped aside from the doorway.
“If you stay, it has to be because you choose me.”
Sophia's eyes filled.
“And if I leave?”
“I'll still love you.”
She picked up her suitcase.
Walked past him.
Reached the bedroom door.
Then Roman said something that stopped her.
“There is one more secret.”
Sophia slowly turned.
Roman looked terrified.
Not like a powerful man.
Like her husband.
“I was going to ask you something the night you found that letter.”
He opened the drawer beside the bed.
Inside was a small velvet box.
Sophia stared.
Roman opened it.
Not an engagement ring.
They already had those.
Inside was a key.
“To what?”
“A house.”
Sophia frowned.
“Where?”
“Vermont.”
She looked at him.
Roman smiled sadly.
“No Duca business. No guards at the gate. No family meetings downstairs.”
He swallowed.
“I bought it because I wanted to ask if you'd leave all of this with me.”
Sophia couldn't speak.
“I wasn't planning to choose the empire, Sophia.”
May you like
Roman closed the box.
“I was planning to choose you.”
