Chapter 2 - The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die
Roman's answer changed everything.
For five years, Sophia had believed that if she ever told the truth, Roman would destroy her.
Now he was standing between her and the woman who had made her life a nightmare.
Isabella slowly sat down, but her eyes never left Sophia.
"Go ahead," Roman said.
Sophia swallowed.
"Five years ago, my father didn't die of a heart attack."
A murmur moved around the table.
Roman's expression remained unreadable.
Sophia continued.
"He was murdered."
Matteo looked up sharply.
"Your father?"
"His name was Daniel Bellini. He worked as an accountant for the Duca shipping company. He discovered that millions of dollars were being moved through accounts belonging to charities, hospitals, and companies that didn't exist."
Roman's uncle, Victor, shifted in his chair.
"That's a serious accusation."
"It was more than an accusation. My father had evidence."
Sophia reached into her handbag.
Roman immediately recognized the small leather envelope she removed.
He had seen it before.
Three months earlier, he'd found Sophia sitting on the bathroom floor at two in the morning, holding that same envelope. When he'd asked what was inside, she'd told him it contained old photographs of her father.
He hadn't believed her.
But he'd never forced her to explain.
Sophia placed the envelope on the table.
"My father made a copy of everything. He hid it before he died. Two days after his funeral, someone broke into our apartment. They took his computer, his documents, and every photograph they could find."
"Why didn't you go to the police?" Matteo asked.
Sophia laughed without humor.
"Because the detective assigned to the case was one of the men who visited my father's office the night before he died."
Silence.
She opened the envelope and removed a photograph.
It showed a younger Daniel Bellini standing beside three men outside a warehouse.
One was Isabella's late husband, former family boss Antonio Duca.
The second was a man Sophia didn't recognize.
The third was Roman.
Only Roman looked different.
He was younger, perhaps twenty-eight, wearing a dark suit, his expression cold.
Sophia turned the photograph toward the table.
"That's the night my father disappeared."
Roman stared at it.
"I was there."
The words came out quietly.
Sophia's face tightened.
"I know."
"Then tell them what you know about that night."
She looked directly at him.
"You were the last person my father called."
Roman didn't deny it.
Matteo slowly lowered himself into his chair.
"Roman, what is she talking about?"
Roman ignored him.
"Sophia, there are things you don't understand."
"Then explain them."
He looked at the photograph again.
"I was twenty-eight. My father controlled every part of the organization. I handled the shipping operations. Daniel found discrepancies in the accounts and contacted me because he believed I was the only person in the family who might help him."
"Did you?"
"I tried."
Sophia's voice cracked.
"No. You went to the warehouse."
Roman looked at her.
"Yes."
"And my father never came home."
Roman's silence was answer enough.
Isabella abruptly pushed her chair back.
"This conversation is over."
"No," Roman said.
His mother stared at him.
"You're allowing this woman to rewrite history."
Roman turned toward her.
"Then help us remember it correctly."
For the first time, Isabella seemed genuinely uncertain.
Sophia removed another item from the envelope.
A small silver key.
"My father gave me this three days before he died. He told me that if anything happened to him, I should find the place where the truth was buried."
Roman recognized the key.
His expression changed.
"Where did you get that?"
"My father."
"That's impossible."
"Why?"
Roman reached for it, but Sophia closed her fist.
"Because I buried that key with your father."
A cold silence spread across the dining room.
Roman's father had died four years earlier.
Sophia stared at Roman.
"You told me you had never seen this key."
"I hadn't."
"Then why did you just say you buried it?"
Roman's eyes moved toward his mother.
Isabella stood again.
"Roman, don't."
He looked at her.
"What did you do?"
She didn't answer.
Then an elderly man at the far end of the table slowly raised his head.
It was Carlo Moretti, the family's longtime attorney.
"Perhaps," he said, "it's time someone explained what happened to Daniel Bellini."
Roman turned.
"Carlo?"
The old attorney's hands were trembling.
"I was there that night."
Sophia stepped toward him.
"Did you see my father?"
Carlo nodded.
"Yes."
"Was he alive?"
Carlo looked at Roman.
Then at Isabella.
And finally back at Sophia.
"He was alive when they put him in the car."
Sophia's knees nearly gave way.
Roman caught her arm.
"Who put him in the car?" he demanded.
Carlo closed his eyes.
"Your mother."
A glass shattered somewhere behind them.
And before Roman could ask another question, the mansion's security alarm began screaming.
A guard rushed into the dining room.
"Mr. Duca! Someone has entered the east wing."
Roman reached inside his jacket.
"Who?"
The guard looked toward Sophia.
"We don't know, sir. But whoever it is left something in your wife's bedroom."
He swallowed.
"It's a photograph of her father."
Sophia went pale.
May you like
The guard continued.
"He's holding a newspaper from tomorrow's date."
