Chapter 9 - The Wedding in Three Days
Michael Trent sat in a locked consultation room while two guards stood outside and Enzo recorded every word.
Sophia sat across from him because the story involved her mother and she refused to be sent away again.
Dante remained standing.
He had not sat down once since Michael said Maria Rossi's name.
"Start at the beginning," Dante said.
Michael pressed a folded towel against the cut near his hairline.
"There isn't one beginning."
Dante's expression did not change.
"Choose one."
Michael swallowed.
"Six months ago, Mr. Mercer asked me to locate records from your father's private archive."
"Why would you do that?"
"He said it was related to the Genovese merger."
"You work for me."
"I know."
"That was not an answer."
Michael looked down.
"He knew about my sister's debts."
Sophia felt anger rise.
"More gambling?"
Michael shook his head.
"Medical bills."
"Her husband died two years ago and left her with everything."
His voice cracked.
"Mercer bought the debt from the collection company."
Sophia understood immediately.
Different weakness.
Same method.
Dante understood too.
"He owned your leverage before he asked for the favor."
Michael nodded.
"Yes."
"What records did you find?"
"Old ledgers, correspondence, settlement agreements, and legal memoranda from the early 2000s."
Sophia leaned forward.
"What did they say about my mother?"
Michael looked at her with obvious reluctance.
"Maria Rossi found irregular payments while doing contract bookkeeping for Terra Mare Imports."
"What kind of payments?"
"Shell vendors."
"Cash reimbursements."
"Construction invoices for work that never happened."
Dante's gaze sharpened.
"Money laundering."
Michael nodded.
"That was the implication."
Sophia's mouth went dry.
"Did she report it?"
"She tried to."
"To whom?"
"First to Carlo Genovese."
Sophia closed her eyes briefly.
Of course Maria had tried to solve the problem inside the company first.
That was exactly the kind of mistake an honest person might make.
"What did he do?"
Michael looked at Dante.
"He went to Lorenzo Moretti."
Dante's face tightened at his father's name.
"Why?"
"Because some of the shell vendors were tied to Moretti construction projects."
Silence filled the room.
Sophia looked at Dante.
"Your father was involved."
Dante did not defend him.
"Continue."
Michael took a breath.
"According to the correspondence, Maria copied several ledgers."
"She threatened to go to federal investigators if the companies did not clean up the accounts."
"Carlo wanted her discredited."
Sophia's hands curled into fists.
"How?"
"He wanted to accuse her of theft."
The word hit Sophia hard.
The necklace.
The forged debt.
A pattern older than Vanessa's jealousy.
"Just like they accused me," Sophia said.
Michael nodded.
"Exactly like that."
Dante looked toward the door as though he needed somewhere to direct his anger.
"What did my father do?"
Michael hesitated.
"He stopped Carlo from filing charges."
Sophia felt a second of relief.
Then Michael continued.
"But he also convinced Maria not to go to the authorities."
Dante's jaw tightened.
"How?"
"He paid Anthony's gambling debt and threatened to withdraw protection if Maria went public."
Sophia stood so abruptly her chair scraped the floor.
"No."
Michael looked at her helplessly.
"That is what the documents say."
"My mother went to Elena for help because Anthony was gambling."
"Yes."
"Elena thought she was helping my mother."
"She was."
"But Lorenzo used that debt to silence her."
Michael lowered his eyes.
"Yes."
Sophia felt as though the Moretti house had tilted beneath her even though they were miles away from it.
Dante spoke quietly.
"Did my mother know?"
"The archive suggests she knew about the debt settlement."
"Not the threat."
"There is no evidence she knew the rest."
Sophia looked at Dante.
He appeared sickened.
It would have been easier if he had defended his father.
Easier to hate him.
Instead, he looked like a son learning the man he had spent his life obeying had built the family's peace on someone else's fear.
"What happened to the copies Maria made?" Sophia asked.
Michael looked at her.
"That is the part Mercer cannot find."
"He thinks they still exist."
"Where?"
"He believes Anthony knows."
Sophia laughed bitterly.
"My father barely knows where he leaves his keys."
Michael did not smile.
"Mercer believes Maria gave Anthony one set before she became ill."
Dante turned toward Sophia.
"Has your father ever mentioned papers from your mother?"
"No."
Then Sophia remembered a locked metal box that had sat in the top of Anthony's closet throughout her childhood.
Her mother called it the tax box.
After Maria died, Anthony claimed he lost the key.
Sophia had never asked what was inside.
Her face must have changed.
Dante saw it.
"What?"
"There was a box."
Michael leaned forward.
"Metal?"
"Gray."
"About the size of a briefcase?"
Sophia stared at him.
"How do you know?"
Michael looked at Dante.
"Because Mercer showed me a photograph of it."
Sophia's pulse accelerated.
"Where is the photograph from?"
"Maria's old personnel file."
Dante stepped closer.
"Why does her personnel file contain a photograph of a box?"
"Because somebody photographed her carrying it out of Terra Mare twenty-three years ago."
Sophia suddenly imagined her mother being watched exactly as Sophia had been watched outside Veluto.
The thought made her skin crawl.
"Where is the box now?"
"I don't know."
"My father might."
Dante shook his head.
"You are not asking Anthony tonight."
Sophia's anger flashed.
"We don't have the luxury of protecting his feelings."
"I am not protecting his feelings."
"Then what?"
Dante glanced toward the hospital corridor.
"Someone is forcing a wedding in three days because they believe those records can destroy the Genovese merger."
"If Anthony knows where the box is, they will go after him again."
Sophia's stomach tightened.
"He is already under your protection."
"Which has failed twice in forty-eight hours."
Dante's honesty landed hard.
Michael looked between them.
"Mercer said the wedding is the deadline."
Sophia turned toward him.
"Why does marrying Vanessa matter if the records still exist?"
Michael rubbed his hands together.
"The merger agreement activates on marriage."
Dante's eyes narrowed.
"Not the engagement."
"Marriage."
Michael nodded.
"Once the companies merge, several old liabilities transfer into a new holding structure."
"Mercer believes he can bury the old Terra Mare exposure inside it."
Sophia looked at Dante.
"So the wedding is not romance."
"It never was."
The answer was too quiet.
Sophia felt it anyway.
"You were really going to do it?"
Dante met her eyes.
"Yes."
"For business."
"For stability between two families that have spent thirty years trying not to destroy each other."
Sophia shook her head.
"That sounds like a terrible reason to marry someone."
"It is."
"Then why agree?"
Dante's face closed.
"Because sometimes peace costs more than happiness."
Sophia thought of her mother sacrificing the truth to keep Anthony alive and her daughter safe.
"And who usually pays that cost?"
Dante did not answer.
They both knew.
People like Maria.
People like Rosa.
People like Sophia.
Enzo entered with a laptop.
"We finished the first pass on Vanessa's phone."
Dante turned.
"And?"
"Nothing about Rosa."
Vanessa's messages contained arguments with Dante, wedding plans, insults about Sophia sent to friends, and instructions to Anthony regarding the false recording.
There was no evidence she had ordered a kidnapping.
No messages to Mercer about Elena's medication.
No reference to the forced wedding deadline.
Sophia frowned.
"She could have used another phone."
"She could have," Enzo said.
"But there is something else."
He placed a message on the screen.
It had been sent from Vanessa to Mercer two days earlier.
Stop escalating.
I told you I want the waitress gone, not hurt.
Dante read it twice.
Sophia felt conflicting anger and relief.
Vanessa had framed her.
Vanessa had manipulated Anthony.
Vanessa had wanted her driven out.
But Vanessa might not have ordered Rosa's abduction or Elena's poisoning.
Michael nodded when he saw the message.
"Mercer stopped taking instructions from Vanessa weeks ago."
Dante looked at him.
"Whose instructions is he taking?"
Michael's face became pale.
"Carlo's."
Sophia remembered Carlo's surprise when she announced Rosa had been kidnapped.
"He looked surprised tonight."
"He is very good at looking surprised," Michael said.
Dante stared at the screen.
Then he took out his phone.
"What are you doing?" Sophia asked.
"Calling Vanessa."
"Why?"
"Because I want to know whether she understands what her father is doing."
Vanessa answered immediately.
Dante put the call on speaker.
"Where are you?"
"Home."
Her voice was cold.
"Did you find your missing housekeeper?"
"Yes."
A pause.
"Alive?"
"Yes."
Vanessa exhaled audibly.
Sophia looked at Dante.
That relief sounded real.
Dante continued.
"Mercer poisoned my mother."
Silence.
Then Vanessa whispered.
"What?"
"She is alive."
"Dante, I swear to you, I did not -"
"I know what you did to Sophia."
Vanessa went quiet.
"I have your messages to Mercer."
"Then you know I told him not to hurt anyone."
"You told him to get rid of her."
"I meant make her leave."
Sophia closed her eyes.
Vanessa sounded offended by the distinction, as though destroying Sophia's job and reputation had been civilized.
Dante's voice hardened.
"Your father wants the wedding moved to Saturday."
Silence stretched across the speaker.
"How do you know that?" Vanessa asked.
Dante looked at Michael.
"Answer the question."
Vanessa inhaled shakily.
"He told me tonight."
"And what did you say?"
"I said yes."
Sophia felt something drop inside her.
Dante's face revealed nothing.
"Why?"
Vanessa's answer came quietly.
"Because he has something on you."
"What?"
"I don't know."
"Vanessa."
"I don't know, Dante."
Her voice finally cracked.
"He said if I don't marry you Saturday, he will destroy both families and make sure Sophia Rossi is blamed for it."
Sophia stared at the phone.
Dante's eyes met hers.
Vanessa continued.
"So congratulations, Sophia."
Her voice became bitter again.
"You wanted to be part of this family."
Sophia's anger flared.
"I never said that."
"It doesn't matter anymore."
Vanessa laughed once, but there was no humor in it.
"My father has decided you already are."
The call ended.
Dante stared at the dark screen.
Then Michael spoke.
"There is one more thing."
Everyone looked at him.
"Mercer told me that if the wedding happens, the Maria Rossi archive disappears forever."
Sophia felt the meaning immediately.
"And if it doesn't?"
Michael looked at her.
"He releases enough forged material to make it look like Maria stole from the Genoveses and you continued what she started."
Sophia's nails dug into her palms.
Her mother had been dead twelve years and they were still prepared to ruin her name.
Dante looked toward the hospital room where Elena slept.
Then he made a decision.
"The wedding happens Saturday."
Sophia stared at him.
"What?"
Dante's eyes returned to hers.
"Not because they ordered it."
May you like
His voice became colder.
"Because I want every person behind this to believe they won."
