Chapter 10 - The Secret Hidden in Her Father’s Past
The police wanted to wait.
Julian did not.
For once, Sophie agreed with the police.
“Charging into your family estate seems like exactly how people end up in documentaries.”
Julian checked the magazine of a weapon.
Sophie stared.
“No.”
He looked at her.
“You are not bringing that near me.”
“Sophie—”
“No guns.”
“This isn’t a classroom.”
“Then stop behaving like one of my students who thinks consequences are optional.”
Marco slowly held out his hand.
Julian looked annoyed.
Then surrendered the weapon.
Sophie nodded.
“Thank you.”
Marco murmured, “I have never seen anyone do that.”
Julian looked at him.
“Marco.”
“Stopping now.”
Police surrounded the Romano estate.
No sign of Dominic.
No sign of Thomas.
But inside Isabella Romano’s former bedroom, they found a hidden safe.
Thomas had apparently been forced to open it.
The safe was empty.
Except for one note.
YOU CANNOT BURY A KINGDOM WITHOUT BURYING ITS HEIR.
Julian read it twice.
“This is about me.”
Sophie shook her head.
“No.”
“What?”
“It’s about what you inherited.”
Julian looked around the room.
The empire.
The money.
The name.
Dominic did not need Julian dead.
He needed Julian discredited.
If evidence connected Julian to decades of criminal activity, the Romano businesses could collapse.
Then someone else could acquire them cheaply.
“Vittorio,” Julian said.
Sophie nodded.
“But your uncle isn’t smart enough to build this.”
Marco coughed.
Julian looked at Sophie.
She shrugged.
“You said it, not me.”
“He’s greedy,” Julian admitted. “Not patient.”
“So Dominic is using him.”
Detective Morales entered carrying a recovered hard drive.
“We found this behind the safe.”
The drive contained financial records.
Millions diverted.
Bribes.
Payoffs.
Illegal contracts.
Signatures.
Including Julian’s.
Fake.
But convincing.
“If these leak,” Morales said, “you’ll spend years proving they’re fabricated.”
Julian’s phone buzzed.
Every person in the room received an alert almost simultaneously.
NEWS BREAKING:
LEAKED DOCUMENTS ALLEGE JULIAN ROMANO CONTROLLED DECADES-LONG CRIMINAL NETWORK.
It had begun.
Within minutes, every major outlet carried the story.
ROMANO EMPIRE BUILT ON CORRUPTION?
BILLIONAIRE LINKED TO MISSING INVESTIGATOR.
FEDERAL AUTHORITIES REVIEW LEAKED FILES.
Then came the photograph.
Sophie beside Julian.
TEACHER CONNECTED TO ROMANO INVESTIGATION.
Her school district suspended her “for safety and administrative review.”
Parents began calling.
Social media exploded.
Some defended her.
Others accused her of being Julian’s mistress.
An accomplice.
A gold digger.
One viral post showed a photo of Sophie from years earlier.
LOOK AT HER. YOU REALLY THINK A BILLIONAIRE JUST RANDOMLY FELL FOR A TEACHER?
Thousands laughed.
Sophie stared at the screen.
Julian took her phone.
“Stop reading.”
“Give it back.”
“No.”
“Julian.”
“They don’t know you.”
“That doesn’t mean words don’t hurt.”
Something flashed in his eyes.
Anger.
“Who posted it?”
“Do not destroy anyone’s life because they called me fat.”
“I wasn’t going to destroy their life.”
“Your face suggests otherwise.”
He put the phone down.
Sophie sat.
She had spent years learning to love a body that strangers believed was public property.
Too soft.
Too curvy.
Too much.
She knew how to survive comments.
But this was different.
Her students might see them.
Her colleagues.
Parents.
Julian sat across from her.
“My mother spent her entire life being photographed.”
Sophie looked up.
“She once told me the cruelest thing about public judgment is that eventually you begin doing the work for them.”
“What does that mean?”
“You insult yourself before anyone else gets the chance.”
Sophie swallowed.
Julian continued.
“I have watched you argue with armed security guards, chase a conspiracy into a basement, and tell me my personality is defective.”
“It is.”
“Yet you’re letting strangers who have never met you decide your worth.”
Sophie looked at him.
“That was almost inspirational.”
“I regret it already.”
She smiled.
Then Julian’s expression softened.
“For what it’s worth…”
“What?”
“I noticed you before I noticed the ticket.”
Her breath caught.
“At the concert?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“You were talking to an elderly woman in the aisle.”
Sophie remembered.
The woman couldn’t find her seat.
“You helped her sit.”
“That’s your explanation?”
“No.”
“What else?”
Julian looked directly at her.
“You were beautiful.”
Sophie forgot every intelligent sentence she had ever spoken.
Julian stood.
“We need to find your father.”
He walked away.
Sophie stared after him.
“That is an incredibly unfair thing to say before leaving a room.”
His voice came from the hallway.
“I know.”
A new message arrived on Sophie’s phone.
Not Dominic.
Thomas.
A photograph of a clock tower.
Sophie recognized it.
Old Harbor Terminal.
Below it:
MIDNIGHT. COME ALONE. I CAN END THIS.
Julian saw the message.
“No.”
Sophie looked at him.
“You don’t even know what I was going to say.”
“Yes, I do.”
“I’m going.”
“No.”
“My father asked me.”
“Dominic may have his phone.”
“Then we find out.”
Julian stepped closer.
“You are not walking into a trap alone.”
Sophie held his gaze.
“Then make sure they think I did.”
May you like
At 11:58 p.m., Sophie Carter walked alone toward the abandoned harbor terminal.
At least, that was what Dominic Vale was supposed to believe.
