Chapter 5 - The Woman Behind Sofia Vale
We moved again before dawn.
Dante stopped using his own security network.
He trusted only two people.
His head of security, Marcus Reed, and an old family investigator named Elias Grant.
Elias was the one who helped us decode the flash drive.
His findings were worse than we expected.
Sofia Vale had worked under at least four names.
Claire Bennett.
Sofia Vale.
Isabella Kane.
And most recently, Sofia had been working directly for Nicholas Moretti.
But there was something else.
She wasn't Nicholas's lover.
She was his operative.
The kiss in Dante's office had been staged.
Not for pleasure.
For surveillance.
Every angle had been recorded.
Every sound captured.
The goal had been to create evidence that Dante was cheating on his wife.
“Why?” I asked.
Elias looked at me.
“To control the divorce.”
“What?”
“If Dante appeared unfaithful, he could lose control of certain marital assets under the terms of your prenuptial agreement.”
I stared at Dante.
“You put that clause in?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To protect you.”
I laughed bitterly.
“It keeps getting better.”
Dante looked away.
Elias continued.
“The clause also contains a trust trigger.”
“What does that mean?”
“If Dante is proven to have acted dishonestly, certain assets transfer to the spouse.”
I looked at him.
“So Nicholas wanted me to divorce Dante.”
“Yes.”
“And then?”
“He wanted the company vulnerable.”
Dante sat forward.
“That's not the whole plan.”
Elias nodded.
“No.”
He placed another file on the table.
“Nicholas wanted you and the babies outside the company structure.”
I frowned.
“Why?”
“Because Olivia's inheritance rights were transferred through a dormant foundation.”
“To me?”
“To your unborn children.”
Silence.
Dante stared at the file.
“What foundation?”
Elias pushed it across.
“The Hart-Moretti Children's Trust.”
I felt dizzy.
My mother had never mentioned it.
Dante had never mentioned it.
Olivia had created it shortly before her death.
It named me as guardian.
And my children as beneficiaries.
The trust owned a significant percentage of Moretti Holdings.
If the twins were born, that stake would become active.
Nicholas didn't want them alive.
I went cold.
Dante stood immediately.
“No one touches my children.”
I looked at him.
Something in his expression had changed.
For the first time, he wasn't protecting an empire.
He was protecting a family.
But then Sofia appeared on the security monitor.
She was standing outside.
Alone.
Dante reached for his weapon.
I grabbed his arm.
“Don't.”
“She could be armed.”
“She wants to talk.”
Marcus checked the cameras.
“No weapons.”
Dante went outside.
Sofia entered the safe house.
She looked different without the carefully controlled elegance.
Tired.
Afraid.
She looked at me.
“I owe you the truth.”
“You owe me more than that.”
“I know.”
She placed a phone on the table.
“This contains recordings of Nicholas.”
Dante's eyes narrowed.
“Why help us?”
“Because he killed my brother.”
The room went silent.
Sofia told us her real name was Claire Bennett.
Her brother had been an accountant who discovered the offshore accounts.
He had been killed two years earlier.
Nicholas offered Claire money and protection if she infiltrated Dante’s company.
She agreed.
At first, she believed Dante was the enemy.
Then she learned the truth.
“Nicholas wasn't trying to control Dante,” she said.
“What was he trying to do?”
“Replace him.”
“With who?”
She looked at Dante.
“Your cousin Adrian.”
Dante froze.
Adrian Moretti.
His cousin.
His closest childhood friend.
The man who had disappeared from Chicago seven years earlier.
“You're saying Adrian is alive?”
Claire nodded.
“He's working for Nicholas.”
The next recording confirmed it.
Adrian’s voice.
“We don't need Dante dead yet.”
Nicholas replied.
“What about Lena?”
“She’s useful alive.”
My blood froze.
Nicholas spoke again.
“And the babies?”
Adrian laughed softly.
“They're the key.”
The recording ended.
I couldn't speak.
Dante looked at me.
His face had become terrifyingly calm.
“We end this now.”
“No.”
He looked at me.
“We expose them.”
“No,” I said again.
“We expose everyone.”
That was the difference between revenge and justice.
I didn't want Nicholas dead.
I wanted him destroyed by the truth.
We spent the next several weeks building a case.
Bank records.
Recordings.
Witnesses.
Corporate documents.
Olivia's ledger.
My mother's testimony.
Claire's confession.
And then we found the final piece.
A security recording from the night Olivia died.
The original had been deleted from police archives.
But one backup existed in Moretti Holdings.
We recovered it.
At 11:43 p.m., Olivia entered the parking garage.
At 11:47, Nicholas appeared.
At 11:49, Adrian entered.
At 11:52, Olivia drove away.
At 11:54, another vehicle followed her.
A black sedan.
The same model later used by Nicholas’s security company.
Dante watched the recording without moving.
Then he whispered:
“I could have stopped it.”
I took his hand.
“No.”
“I was supposed to protect her.”
“You were twenty-seven.”
“I should have known.”
“You were a son trying to save your family.”
He looked at me.
“And now?”
“Now you have two children who need you to stop blaming yourself.”
His fingers tightened around mine.
“I don't deserve you.”
I met his eyes.
“You're right.”
May you like
He almost smiled.
“But you're going to spend the rest of your life trying to.”
