Chapter 4 - The Woman in the Warehouse
Sophia couldn't move.
Matteo's wife, Elena, had supposedly died in a car accident five years earlier.
The family had held a funeral. Matteo had received condolences from powerful men across the country. Adrian had spent months seeing a child psychologist.
And now Matteo was telling her his wife was alive.
"Where is she?" Sophia whispered.
Matteo looked devastated.
"I don't know."
"How can you not know?"
"Because my mother told me Elena died."
Sophia turned toward Roman.
"You knew?"
"I knew there were inconsistencies."
"That's not an answer."
Roman stepped closer.
"I suspected she was alive. I didn't know where she was."
Matteo slammed his hand against the desk.
"You knew and never told me?"
"I didn't have proof."
"She's my wife!"
"And someone has your son!"
Roman's voice silenced him.
Sophia picked up her coat.
"We're going to the warehouse."
Roman blocked the door.
"No."
"Adrian is a child."
"And you're the person they're demanding. That's exactly why you aren't going anywhere."
"Then I'll go without you."
Roman stared at her.
He knew that expression.
It was the same one she had worn the night he first met her.
The expression of someone who had already decided to sacrifice herself.
He turned toward Matteo.
"Get the cars ready."
They arrived at Pier 19 thirty-five minutes later.
The old warehouse stood beside the harbor, its windows broken and its loading doors covered in rust.
Roman ordered his men to surround the building.
Sophia noticed something strange.
There were no guards outside.
No vehicles.
No lights.
It looked abandoned.
They entered through a side door.
Inside, a single lamp illuminated a wooden chair.
Adrian was sitting in it.
His hands were tied.
"Adrian!"
Matteo rushed forward.
A gunshot exploded.
Roman pulled him down.
The bullet struck the wall above them.
"Stay behind me!"
A voice came through a loudspeaker.
"Only Sophia comes forward."
Sophia stepped into the light.
Roman caught her wrist.
"Don't."
She looked at him.
"Your nephew is terrified."
"I know."
"Then let me help him."
Roman reluctantly released her.
Sophia walked toward the chair.
"Adrian, sweetheart, look at me."
The boy's eyes filled with tears.
"Aunt Sophia?"
She knelt.
"You're going to be okay."
A door opened behind her.
A woman emerged.
She was thin, pale, and wearing a dark coat. Her hair was shorter than Sophia remembered, but there was no mistaking her face.
Matteo stopped breathing.
"Elena?"
His wife looked at him.
"Hello, Matteo."
He stumbled forward.
"You're alive."
Elena's eyes filled with tears.
"Not for lack of trying to stay that way."
Matteo approached her, but she raised a hand.
"Don't."
He stopped.
"Why?"
"Because your mother told me what would happen if I ever came back."
Isabella's name changed the atmosphere.
Roman raised his gun.
"Where is my mother?"
Elena laughed bitterly.
"Still sitting in your mansion, pretending she's the victim."
Sophia looked at her.
"Why did you disappear?"
Elena's eyes moved toward the warehouse ceiling.
"Because I found out what Daniel Bellini had discovered."
She explained that she had been helping Daniel investigate the Duca accounts. Antonio had been stealing money from legitimate companies and using the family shipping network to move illegal shipments.
Daniel had collected the evidence.
Elena had copied it.
When Isabella discovered the truth, she ordered Antonio to silence both of them.
But Antonio had made a different decision.
He planned to use Daniel's evidence to blackmail his own business partners.
That was why Daniel had been kept alive.
Sophia's voice trembled.
"Where is my father?"
Elena looked at her.
"I don't know."
"Carlo said he was put in a car."
"He was. But that wasn't the last time anyone saw him."
Roman stepped closer.
"What happened after that?"
Elena glanced toward the loading door.
"Antonio arranged for Daniel to disappear. Isabella arranged for me to die. And someone else arranged for Sophia to become Roman's wife."
Sophia froze.
"What?"
Elena reached into her coat.
She pulled out an old newspaper clipping.
A photograph showed Roman and Sophia at a charity event five years earlier.
On the back was a handwritten note.
THE MARRIAGE WAS NEVER AN ACCIDENT.
Roman took the paper.
His expression changed.
"Who wrote this?"
Elena looked directly at him.
"Your father."
A sudden explosion shook the warehouse.
The lights went out.
Roman grabbed Sophia and pulled her behind a concrete pillar.
Gunfire erupted from the loading area.
Matteo shouted for Adrian.
Sophia reached for the boy's chair.
But when the emergency lights flickered back on, Adrian was gone.
And so was Elena.
Only a small voice remained in the darkness.
"Uncle Roman?"
Roman turned.
Adrian's abandoned chair was empty.
On the floor lay a bloody photograph.
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It showed Roman standing over a dead man.
The man was Daniel Bellini.
