Chapter 3 - A Debt That Wasn't Money
Sophia learned about Dante's planned engagement from Elena.
Not Dante.
That detail irritated her more than it should have.
“January?” Sophia repeated.
Elena stirred tomato sauce.
“If the families get their way.”
“And Dante?”
“My son is very talented at confusing duty with desire.”
Sophia concentrated aggressively on basil.
“It isn't my business.”
“Of course not.”
Elena smiled.
“You're chopping that basil like it insulted your mother.”
Sophia stopped.
“I don't care who he marries.”
“Then the basil should feel much safer.”
Sophia laughed despite herself.
Elena's expression softened.
“You like him.”
“I tolerate him.”
“That's how it begins in this family.”
Sophia pointed the knife at her.
“You are dangerous.”
“I raised Dante.”
Fair point.
Later that evening Dante found Sophia on the terrace.
“You've been avoiding me.”
“I've been working.”
“You left the library yesterday when I entered.”
“I suddenly remembered somewhere else existed.”
He leaned against the railing.
“What did my mother tell you?”
Sophia looked at him.
“January.”
His face hardened slightly.
“There is no engagement.”
“There is apparently an entire family alliance that missed that memo.”
“It was discussed.”
“With everyone except the woman living in your house?”
“Why would I discuss my marriage with you?”
The words landed harder than he intended.
Sophia nodded.
“You wouldn't.”
She walked toward the door.
Dante caught her wrist.
Immediately, he released it.
“Sophia.”
“What?”
“I haven't agreed to marry Vanessa.”
“Okay.”
“That's all?”
“What do you want me to say?”
He stared at her.
The answer was obvious enough to frighten them both.
Sophia stepped inside.
Dante remained on the terrace.
The next morning, Elena finally told Sophia about Rosa.
Not everything.
Just enough.
“Your grandmother saved my life.”
Sophia stared at her.
“When?”
“Before Dante was born.”
“How?”
Elena looked toward the window.
“My husband had enemies. One night, those enemies came looking for me.”
“And Rosa?”
“She hid me.”
“Where?”
“In the cellar beneath her family's bakery in Brooklyn.”
Sophia sat down.
“My grandmother never owned a bakery.”
“Her sister did.”
Sophia remembered a photograph.
Rosa beside a storefront.
She had always assumed it belonged to someone else.
“She never told me.”
“She promised she wouldn't.”
“Why?”
Elena's eyes darkened.
“Because the men looking for me were never all found.”
A chill moved through Sophia.
“Are they still alive?”
“Most are dead.”
“Most?”
Elena took Sophia's hand.
“That is why I didn't tell you immediately.”
Sophia pulled away.
“No. You don't get to decide what I know about my own family.”
Elena flinched.
Sophia regretted the sharpness immediately.
But she didn't apologize for the question.
“Did Dante know?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because his father made me promise.”
Sophia stood.
“What else aren't you telling me?”
Elena looked suddenly old.
“Enough to wish Rosa were here to explain it herself.”
That afternoon Dante received a security report.
Someone had photographed the eastern gate.
Someone had asked about delivery times.
And the questions traced back to Anthony Rossi.
Dante summoned Sophia to his study.
She entered already annoyed.
“You summoned me?”
“I asked you to come.”
“Enzo said, ‘Mr. Moretti wants you in his study immediately.’ That's a summons.”
Dante slid a photograph across the desk.
Anthony Rossi talking to Luca Ferrante.
Sophia's face drained.
“When?”
“Three days ago.”
“I didn't know.”
“Your father called you that night.”
“Yes.”
“You went to see him.”
“Yes.”
“What did he give you?”
“Nothing.”
“There are photographs.”
“He tried to give me an envelope. I refused it.”
“What was inside?”
“I don't know.”
Dante studied her.
That hurt.
Not the questions.
The hesitation.
“You think I'm lying.”
“I think I need facts.”
“Then find them.”
“Sophia—”
“No. You bought my debt. Investigated my address. Knew where my father was before I did. Surely you can figure out whether I'm secretly plotting against you.”
She turned.
“Don't leave.”
She faced him.
“Is that an order?”
Dante's jaw flexed.
“No.”
“Good.”
She left.
That night, Vanessa visited Anthony.
He looked twenty years older than his fifty-two years.
“You said you'd clear what I owe Ferrante.”
“I will.”
“What do you want?”
Vanessa placed a flash drive on the table.
“You're going to give this to him.”
Anthony stared at it.
“What is it?”
“Nothing important.”
“Then why—”
“You don't need to know.”
He pushed it away.
“My daughter lives in that house.”
Vanessa's expression cooled.
“Your daughter lives in that house because you sold her name for gambling money.”
Anthony looked down.
Vanessa leaned closer.
“Don't pretend morality suddenly found you.”
His hand shook.
“What happens to Sophia?”
“Nothing, if she leaves.”
“And Dante?”
“He discovers he can't trust her.”
Anthony looked at the drive.
“You want him to think she did it.”
Vanessa said nothing.
That silence answered him.
“No.”
Vanessa stood.
“Ferrante owns your debt.”
“I'll pay.”
“With what?”
Anthony's face collapsed.
Vanessa left the drive.
“You have until tomorrow.”
Back at the estate, Sophia packed.
Elena found her.
“No.”
Sophia folded another sweater.
“I can't stay somewhere I'm treated like a suspect.”
“My son is an idiot.”
“That's comforting.”
“I'll tell him.”
“Tell him what?”
“Everything about Rosa.”
Sophia stopped.
Elena sat on the bed.
“Rosa didn't only hide me.”
She swallowed.
“She saved Dante too.”
Sophia slowly sat beside her.
“How could she save Dante before he was born?”
Elena touched her stomach as though remembering.
“I was pregnant.”
Sophia's breath caught.
“Eight months.”
Elena's voice trembled.
“The men who came for me knew killing my husband's wife would hurt him. Killing his unborn son would destroy him.”
Sophia stared.
“Rosa hid you while pregnant with Dante.”
“For two days.”
Elena began crying.
“She had nothing to gain. She barely knew me. Yet she lied to armed men while I hid beneath her feet.”
Sophia covered her mouth.
“She risked her life.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Elena smiled through tears.
“Because Rosa was Rosa.”
A knock came.
Dante stood in the doorway.
He had heard enough.
His face had lost all color.
“Mama.”
Elena turned.
Dante looked from his mother to Sophia.
“Rosa Rossi saved you?”
“She saved us.”
Dante entered slowly.
“All these years…”
“Your father believed silence kept everyone safe.”
Dante looked at Sophia.
The suspicion he'd shown hours earlier became something uglier.
Shame.
Sophia stood.
“Now you know.”
He stepped toward her.
“I didn't know.”
“No.”
“Sophia—”
“You didn't know my grandmother saved your life.”
“That isn't what I meant.”
She held his gaze.
“You didn't know whether to trust me.”
He couldn't deny it.
Sophia picked up her suitcase.
Dante moved aside.
He could have stopped her.
Every instinct he had told him to.
Instead he watched her walk toward the door.
Then Enzo appeared at the end of the corridor.
“Boss.”
Dante turned.
Enzo held a phone.
“We found the leak.”
Sophia stopped.
“Anthony Rossi just delivered a flash drive to Luca Ferrante.”
Dante's expression became stone.
May you like
Enzo looked at Sophia.
“And Ferrante's men are saying the drive came from her.”
