Chapter 13 - The Story They Sold
By nine the next morning, Sophia Rossi had become famous for a crime she had never committed.
Her phone began vibrating before she opened her eyes.
At first she thought it was Dante's security team.
Then she saw twelve missed calls from former coworkers at Veluto.
Three texts from numbers she did not recognize.
Two voicemails from reporters.
And a photograph of herself on the front page of a New York gossip site.
WAITRESS AT CENTER OF MORETTI-GENOVESE SCANDAL.
Sophia sat upright in the guest bed.
The article used the photograph of the emerald necklace lying beside her purse at the engagement dinner.
It claimed an unnamed guest had witnessed Sophia remove the necklace from Vanessa's dressing room.
It quoted a source who said Sophia had become "obsessed" with Dante after serving him at Veluto.
It referenced Anthony's recording.
The article did not include the parts where Vanessa had paid Anthony or where the debt agreement had been forged.
It described Sophia as financially desperate.
That part, humiliatingly, was true.
It mentioned her overdue rent.
It mentioned her father's gambling.
It mentioned the forty-thousand-dollar debt Dante had purchased.
Then it asked the question Carlo wanted the city to ask.
Had Sophia Rossi targeted Dante Moretti for money from the beginning?
Sophia read the article twice.
The second time hurt worse because she noticed how carefully the truth had been arranged around the lies.
She got dressed and went downstairs.
Dante, Enzo, Elena, and three attorneys were already in the library.
Vanessa stood near the fireplace.
Sophia stopped in the doorway.
"You have got to be kidding me."
Vanessa looked tired.
"I didn't leak it."
"How comforting."
Dante handed Sophia a printed copy of the article.
"We are tracing the source."
She did not take it.
"You can save the paper."
"I've memorized my own criminal career."
One of the attorneys cleared his throat.
"Miss Rossi, we need to discuss your response."
Sophia looked at him.
"My response is that it is a lie."
"Of course."
"Then say that."
The attorney glanced at Dante.
That tiny movement told Sophia more than his words did.
"What?"
Dante spoke.
"We cannot issue a full statement yet."
Sophia stared at him.
"Why?"
"Because Carlo wants a public fight before Saturday."
"If we deny everything now, he changes the plan."
Sophia laughed in disbelief.
"So your plan requires me to look like a thief for forty-eight hours."
"It requires him to believe we are reacting defensively."
"I am reacting defensively because people think I stole a necklace."
Elena interrupted.
"Dante, this is not acceptable."
He turned toward his mother.
"I know."
"Then fix it."
"I am trying to end the entire thing, not one article."
Sophia felt something crack inside her.
"One article?"
She held up her phone.
"My address is online."
"My father's debts are online."
"My mother's name is online."
"People at Veluto are texting me asking if I planned this from the first night."
Dante's face tightened.
"Your address will be removed."
"That is not the point."
"Then tell me the point."
Sophia stepped closer.
"The point is that everybody with money keeps deciding which part of my life is acceptable collateral."
The library went silent.
Dante absorbed the words.
Vanessa looked down.
Sophia continued.
"Your father did it to my mother."
"Carlo did it to my mother."
"Vanessa did it to me."
"My own father did it to me."
Her voice shook now, but she kept going.
"And you keep telling yourself it is different when you do it because your reason is better."
Dante's expression changed.
"I am trying to protect you."
"Then ask me what protection looks like."
He had no answer.
Sophia walked out.
Her phone rang before she reached the kitchen.
Marco, the manager at Veluto.
She answered.
"Hi."
His silence told her what was coming.
"Sophia, I am sorry."
She closed her eyes.
"Am I fired?"
"Suspended."
"That is a prettier word."
"The owners are getting calls."
"From who?"
"I don't know."
She did.
"You have worked here four years," Marco said.
"I told them you would never steal."
Sophia swallowed.
"Thank you."
"But until this clears up -"
"I understand."
She ended the call before he could hear her cry.
Vanessa stood in the kitchen doorway.
Sophia wiped her face angrily.
"Come to enjoy the results?"
Vanessa shook her head.
"Veluto fired you?"
"Suspended."
"Same difference when rent is due."
Vanessa flinched because she knew exactly why that sentence hurt.
"I can call the owners."
Sophia laughed.
"Absolutely not."
"They know my family."
"That is the problem."
Vanessa stepped into the kitchen.
"I started this."
"Yes."
"I should help undo it."
"Then testify that you planted the necklace."
Vanessa's face went still.
Sophia nodded.
"There it is."
"What?"
"The line between guilt and consequences."
Vanessa looked away.
"If I publicly admit that, my father will know I turned."
"And you might lose something."
"He could hurt people."
"He already is."
Vanessa's eyes filled with anger.
"You think this is simple because you have only known him for three weeks."
Sophia stepped closer.
"No."
"I think it is simple because you knew what it felt like to be afraid of your father and still decided to make me afraid of you."
Vanessa had no answer.
Sophia walked past her.
At noon, Dante held a press conference on the front steps of Moretti Holdings.
Sophia watched it from Elena's sitting room.
He wore a charcoal suit and the expression he used when reporters shouted questions he had no intention of answering.
Vanessa stood beside him.
Her engagement ring was back on her hand.
The sight struck Sophia harder than she expected.
Dante announced that the wedding would take place Saturday at St. Augustine's as planned.
He declined to answer questions about Sophia.
A reporter shouted whether he believed Vanessa's necklace had been stolen.
Dante said the matter was under review.
Another reporter asked whether Sophia Rossi was his mistress.
Dante's jaw tightened.
He said nothing.
Sophia turned off the television.
Elena sat across from her.
"It is theater."
"I know."
"Then why do you look like someone stabbed your favorite chair?"
Sophia stood.
"Because knowing something is theater does not make it pleasant to watch."
Elena sighed.
"He should have defended you."
Sophia looked at her.
"Yes."
"He thinks silence keeps Carlo comfortable."
"And perhaps it does."
Sophia picked up her bag.
"But I am done being the cost of men's comfort."
Elena's face tightened.
"Where are you going?"
"Rosa's daughter's house."
"Rosa invited me."
"Dante will object."
"Dante can put it in a memo."
Elena almost smiled.
Then she became serious.
"Sophia, do not disappear."
The plea stopped her.
Sophia went to Elena and kissed her cheek.
"I am not disappearing."
"I am choosing where I stand."
When Dante returned that afternoon, Sophia's guest room was empty.
She had left the secure phone on the dresser.
Beside it was the forty-thousand-dollar check he had originally used to buy her father's debt.
On the back, Sophia had written one sentence.
No more debts between us.
Dante found her twenty minutes later in the front hall because she had not actually left yet.
Rosa was helping carry her bag.
He looked from the suitcase to Sophia.
"You are leaving."
"For now."
"Why?"
"I already told you."
"Because of the press conference?"
"Because of everything."
Dante dismissed the nearby guard with a glance.
Rosa quietly walked into the kitchen.
They stood alone beneath the chandelier.
"Saturday is a trap," he said.
"I know."
"Standing beside Vanessa was necessary."
"I know."
"Then why are you punishing me for it?"
Sophia stared at him.
"You think me leaving your house is punishment?"
Dante's jaw tightened.
"That came out wrong."
"It came out honest."
She lifted her suitcase.
"I am not an object you lose when I stop being convenient."
"I don't think that."
"Then stop acting like my choices happen to you."
He looked at her for a long moment.
"Are you coming to the wedding?"
Sophia almost laughed.
"You seriously just asked me that."
"The ledger may be beneath the church."
"That is why."
"Of course."
Dante's voice softened.
"That is not the only reason."
Sophia's heart betrayed her.
She hated it.
"What is the other reason?"
Dante looked at her like a man standing one step from a line he had spent his life refusing to cross.
Then Enzo entered from the side corridor.
"Boss."
Dante did not look away from Sophia.
"Not now."
"It has to be now."
Something in Enzo's voice changed the room.
Dante turned.
Enzo held out a tablet.
"We traced the gossip leak."
Sophia stopped.
"To Carlo?"
Enzo shook his head.
"No."
"To Paul Mercer?"
"No."
Dante took the tablet.
His expression went blank.
Sophia stepped closer.
"Who?"
Enzo looked at her.
"The first payment to the reporter came from Anthony Rossi."
Sophia felt the floor drop again.
Her father had been kidnapped when the article was published.
May you like
Which meant he had paid for the story before anyone took him.
And once again, Anthony had helped build the weapon used against his own daughter.
