Chapter 1 - The Diamond in the Kitchen
Vanessa Genovese kept smiling as though she had not just walked into the kitchen and found her fiance touching another woman's face.
Sophia forced herself to look at the diamond on Vanessa's hand instead of Dante's expression.
The stone was enormous, clear, and cold, exactly like the woman wearing it.
"Yes," Sophia said.
"I'm the waitress."
Vanessa's eyes narrowed by a fraction because Sophia had answered without apologizing.
Dante stepped away from the counter and folded his arms.
"Sophia works for my mother now."
Vanessa looked at him with amused disbelief.
"For your mother."
"That is what I said."
"How generous of you to bring the staff into the family kitchen."
Sophia felt heat rise into her face, but she refused to let Vanessa see it.
Elena's voice came from the breakfast room before anyone could answer.
"If you are going to insult my guest, Vanessa, at least do it loudly enough for me to enjoy it."
Elena entered with a cane she rarely needed but enjoyed pointing at people when they irritated her.
Vanessa immediately softened her tone.
"Elena, I didn't realize you were awake."
"I have been awake since six because your perfume reached the second floor before you did."
Dante looked down, hiding what might have been a smile.
Sophia turned toward the stove before her own smile betrayed her.
Vanessa noticed anyway.
"I came to discuss the engagement dinner," Vanessa said.
Elena sat at the kitchen table.
"Then discuss it somewhere else."
Vanessa's jaw tightened.
"The caterer needs final numbers."
"Tell him one hundred and fifty-nine."
"The list has one hundred and sixty."
Elena pointed her cane toward Sophia.
"Now it has one hundred and sixty-one."
Sophia spun around.
"Signora, no."
Vanessa's head turned slowly toward Elena.
"You want the waitress at our engagement dinner?"
"I want Sophia at dinner."
"As staff?"
"As my guest."
The silence that followed was sharper than anything Vanessa had said.
Sophia wished the floor would open beneath her.
"I appreciate it," she said carefully, "but I have plans."
Elena stared at her.
"You do not."
"I could make plans."
"Cancel them."
Vanessa gave a quiet laugh.
"How sweet."
Her gaze moved over Sophia's plain blouse, dark skirt, and flour-dusted apron.
"Perhaps someone can find her something appropriate to wear."
Dante's voice changed.
"Enough."
One word was all it took.
Vanessa's smile disappeared for the first time.
Dante did not raise his voice.
He did not need to.
"Sophia works here because Mama asked for her," he said.
"She is treated with respect in this house."
Vanessa looked directly at him.
"And what exactly were you doing when I walked in?"
Sophia's stomach tightened.
Dante did not hesitate.
"Wiping flour from her face."
"How intimate."
"How observant."
Vanessa's cheeks flushed.
Elena tapped her cane once against the floor.
"If you two intend to fight, do it after breakfast because my eggs are getting cold."
Sophia turned back to the stove and focused on breathing.
The next thirty minutes were unbearable.
Vanessa remained in the kitchen while Elena ate, asking Sophia questions that sounded polite until the meaning underneath them became obvious.
"Where did you go to school?"
"Community college for two years."
"Only two?"
"My mother got sick."
"How unfortunate."
"Yes."
"And you live in the Bronx?"
"Yes."
"Alone?"
Sophia glanced at her.
"Why?"
Vanessa lifted her coffee.
"Conversation."
Dante looked up from his phone.
"You have never been interested in conversation before."
Vanessa ignored him.
"Your father is still alive, I assume."
Sophia went completely still.
Dante's gaze snapped toward Vanessa.
That was when Sophia understood something important.
Vanessa knew more than she should.
"He is," Sophia said.
"How lucky."
Sophia held her stare.
"Some days."
Vanessa smiled again.
"Family can be complicated."
Elena put down her fork.
"Vanessa."
"What?"
"Leave."
The command was so direct that even Sophia looked at her.
Vanessa slowly set down her coffee.
"I was speaking to Sophia."
"And Sophia is too polite to tell you that you are rude."
Elena pointed toward the door.
"I am not."
Vanessa stood.
For the first time, real anger showed in her face.
She kissed Dante on the cheek.
He did not turn toward her.
Then she leaned close enough to whisper something Sophia could not hear.
Whatever she said made Dante's eyes harden.
Vanessa walked from the kitchen without looking back.
Elena waited until the sound of her heels disappeared.
Then she reached for another piece of toast.
"I do not like her."
Sophia nearly dropped the pan.
Dante rubbed a hand over his face.
"Mama."
"You do not like her either."
"That is not the point."
"It is precisely the point when you plan to marry a woman."
Sophia busied herself at the sink because this was a conversation she had no right to hear.
Dante apparently disagreed.
"The engagement has reasons beyond affection."
Elena snorted.
"Business."
"Family."
"Business wearing a family hat."
Sophia turned on the water to hide the fact that she was listening.
Elena looked directly at her.
"You see what I deal with?"
Sophia kept her eyes on the dishes.
"I try not to form opinions about my employer's romantic life."
"Coward."
Dante actually laughed.
Sophia hated how much she liked the sound.
By noon, Vanessa was gone, but her presence remained in the house like smoke after a fire.
Sophia could not stop thinking about the question concerning her father.
She waited until Elena went upstairs for a rest.
Then she found Dante in his study.
The room smelled of leather, cedar, and coffee.
He was reading a contract behind a black desk when she entered.
"Did Vanessa have me investigated too?"
Dante did not pretend to misunderstand.
"I don't know."
"She asked about my father."
"I heard."
"How would she know?"
Dante closed the folder in front of him.
"The same way I knew."
Sophia crossed her arms.
"By invading my privacy?"
"Possibly."
"That answer is not comforting."
"It was not meant to be."
Dante stood and came around the desk.
He stopped several feet away from her instead of coming closer.
Sophia noticed the deliberate distance.
"Vanessa's family has known mine for decades," he said.
"They know the people around me."
"I'm not around you."
His eyes held hers.
"You are in my house every day."
Sophia's pulse betrayed her.
"For your mother."
"Yes."
The answer came too quickly.
Sophia looked away first.
"I want one thing made clear."
"Go ahead."
"Whatever is happening between you and Vanessa has nothing to do with me."
Dante's expression became unreadable.
"Agreed."
"And what happened in the kitchen will not happen again."
A long silence followed.
"Agreed," he said again.
She should have felt relieved.
Instead, the word landed somewhere unpleasantly deep.
Sophia turned to leave.
"Sophia."
She stopped at the door.
"What?"
"If Vanessa asks you about your father again, you tell me."
Sophia looked over her shoulder.
"Why?"
Dante's face had changed.
The warmth was gone.
"Because she should not know where he gambles."
Sophia stared at him.
"But she does?"
"She used the phrase family can be complicated."
"So?"
"That is what the Romano brothers say when they threaten relatives instead of debtors."
Cold moved through Sophia's chest.
"You think she knows the Romanos?"
Dante did not answer directly.
"I think you should stop taking the subway home alone."
"You do not get to decide that."
"No."
He reached for his phone.
"But I can put a car outside and let you decide whether to get into it."
Sophia opened her mouth to argue.
Then her own phone rang.
Her father's name appeared on the screen.
Anthony Rossi had called six times that morning.
Sophia finally answered.
"Dad?"
For several seconds, there was only breathing.
Then her father whispered.
"Sophia, don't come home tonight."
Her entire body tightened.
"Why?"
A man's voice sounded faintly behind him.
Anthony began to cry.
"Because they know where you work."
The line went dead.
Dante was already moving.
"Enzo."
The security chief appeared in the doorway almost immediately.
Sophia stared at Dante.
"How did he know to come?"
"He was outside."
Dante took Sophia's phone and handed it to Enzo.
"Trace the last call."
Sophia grabbed Dante's wrist.
"That is my father."
Dante looked down at her hand and then into her eyes.
"I know."
"Bring him back."
For the first time since she had met him, Dante Moretti looked less like a businessman and more like every whispered story she had heard at Veluto.
"I intend to."
Three minutes later, Enzo returned with the answer.
Anthony's phone had last connected near the Lucky Ace Social Club.
The same club Dante had supposedly cleared of Anthony's debt sixteen days earlier.
Sophia felt sick.
"You said they couldn't collect from him anymore."
Dante stared at the location on Enzo's screen.
"They can't."
"Then why is he there?"
Dante's jaw tightened.
"That is exactly what I am going to find out."
Before Sophia could stop him, Enzo handed Dante a photograph pulled from the club's exterior camera.
The image showed Anthony entering through the back door less than an hour earlier.
He was not alone.
A blonde woman in a red coat walked beside him.
Sophia did not need to see her face.
She recognized the diamond flashing on the woman's hand.
May you like
Vanessa Genovese had taken her father inside.
And Dante's expression said he had no idea why.
