Chapter 6 - The Bride Who Never Wanted Him
Adriana arrived at the Romano estate at 2:40 in the morning through a service entrance.
She wore jeans, a gray sweater, and no makeup.
It was the first time Sophie had seen her look her age.
Twenty-nine.
Not a Vitale daughter.
Not a future alliance.
Just a frightened woman carrying a flash drive in one hand.
Massimo led them into the library.
Caterina, Isabella, Dante, and Sophie followed.
Adriana remained standing.
"My brother Nico works with Bellini Botanical through one of our foundation programs," she began. "He changed the orders."
"Why?" Massimo asked.
"Because he couldn't contact you directly."
"He had my number."
"He believed your phone was compromised."
Dante's jaw tightened.
Adriana continued.
"Three months ago, Nico found financial records connected to my father's companies. Payments to Lorenzo Romano. The records go back more than a decade."
Massimo's face went cold.
"How much?"
"Millions."
"Why?"
Adriana swallowed.
"Information. Shipping routes. Contract bids. Names. Meetings."
Caterina whispered, "Matteo."
Massimo's father.
Adriana looked at her.
"Yes."
The room became still.
"My father knew Lorenzo was betraying Matteo Romano."
Massimo stepped forward.
"Knew?"
Adriana's voice shook.
"He found out too late."
"You expect me to believe Vittorio Vitale knew my father was being sold out and said nothing?"
"He did worse than nothing."
Adriana closed her eyes.
"He helped cover it up."
Massimo moved so quickly Sophie barely saw him.
He slammed both hands against the table.
Adriana flinched.
"Why?"
"Because Lorenzo had evidence that my father had ordered the death of a federal informant years earlier. If that evidence surfaced, Vittorio would have gone to prison for the rest of his life. Lorenzo used it to control him."
Massimo stared at her.
"Your father let mine die to protect himself."
"Yes."
Adriana's answer was barely audible.
Sophie watched Massimo's face.
Rage did not explode.
It disappeared.
He became frighteningly calm.
"Where is Vittorio?"
"Home."
"Does he know you're here?"
"No."
"Good."
Adriana placed the flash drive on the table.
"Nico copied everything."
Dante took it.
Massimo looked at Adriana.
"Why help us?"
She laughed once.
"Because you think I wanted to marry you."
Sophie blinked.
Adriana looked at her.
"I didn't."
Massimo raised an eyebrow.
"That is deeply insulting."
For the first time all night, Sophie almost smiled.
Adriana did.
Then her expression became serious again.
"My father wanted the marriage because he thought combining the families would finally free him from Lorenzo. Lorenzo wanted the marriage because he believed it would give him greater access to your organization."
"So both men used you," Sophie said.
Adriana looked at her.
"Yes."
"Why didn't you refuse?"
"You think daughters in families like mine always get to?"
The question was not bitter.
It was exhausted.
Sophie thought about Caterina spending twelve years hiding the truth to protect her son. Isabella hiding evidence because she trusted no one. Adriana preparing to marry a man she did not love because men older than both of them had decided it was useful.
The women in these families were surrounded by power.
Very little of it belonged to them.
Massimo's phone vibrated.
Dante checked the flash drive on a secure laptop.
"Boss."
Everyone turned.
"There are photographs."
He rotated the screen.
The first showed Lorenzo meeting with a DeSantis representative eleven years ago.
The second showed him handing an envelope to Peter Bell.
The third was recent.
Lorenzo stood beside someone Sophie recognized.
Elena.
The housekeeper who had directed Sophie upstairs on the first night.
Third floor.
West corridor.
Last door before the staircase.
Sophie stared.
"No."
Massimo looked at her.
"What?"
"Elena told me how to find the bathroom."
"She gave you the wrong corridor?"
"She said west corridor. She knew there were two."
Isabella's eyes widened.
"She sent you into Massimo's room."
Sophie felt cold.
That accident had not been an accident.
Massimo turned to Dante.
"Find Elena."
They found her room empty.
Her uniforms were gone.
Her personal phone had been left on the bed.
Inside a drawer, security discovered fifty thousand dollars in cash and a second Bellini Botanical receipt.
Massimo stood in the doorway, staring at the empty room.
"Lorenzo wanted Sophie in my bedroom."
Sophie crossed her arms.
"That is a sentence I never expected to hear."
"He wanted the family to see you."
"Why?"
Adriana answered.
"To break the engagement."
Everyone looked at her.
She continued.
"If you rejected me without another woman involved, my father might have delayed, negotiated, investigated. But if there was public humiliation..."
"The Vitales would blame the Romanos," Caterina said.
Adriana nodded.
"And Lorenzo gets his war."
Sophie thought back to every step.
The wrong directions.
The opened door.
Massimo saying she's with me.
The breakfast.
Adriana's arrival.
The public kiss.
The press.
The sabotage.
It had all grown from one moment Lorenzo had engineered.
"But he couldn't know Massimo would claim I was with him," Sophie said.
"No," Adriana replied. "But he knew Massimo would protect a civilian found in his room from family suspicion."
Massimo's jaw tightened.
Lorenzo had understood him.
That was the most dangerous part.
He had not predicted words.
He had predicted character.
Sophie looked at Massimo.
"So your lie was exactly what he wanted."
"At first."
"What changed?"
"You did."
The room went silent.
Sophie felt heat rise into her face.
Massimo did not look away.
"Lorenzo expected you to disappear after the embarrassment was created," he continued. "Instead, you stayed. You noticed the cord, the deliveries, the support tube."
Adriana added quietly, "You became useful to Massimo."
Sophie looked at her.
Adriana's eyes dropped to Massimo's hand.
He had reached for Sophie's without noticing.
Adriana corrected herself.
"More than useful."
Massimo let go.
Too late.
Isabella smiled.
"This is not the time," Caterina warned.
"At my age, every time is the time."
Dante's phone rang.
He answered, listened, then looked at Massimo.
"We found Lorenzo's car."
"Where?"
"Abandoned near Navy Pier."
"And Lorenzo?"
"Missing."
Massimo looked toward the windows.
Sophie knew immediately what that meant.
The plan had changed.
Lorenzo was no longer hiding inside the family.
He was moving.
And someone who had spent twelve years protecting a secret would not disappear quietly.
At dawn, Massimo ordered Sophie to leave Chicago.
This time, she did not argue immediately.
He had arranged a plane to a secure property in Montana.
Nina, Mia, Jared, and their families could go too.
Sophie's employees accepted.
Sophie did not.
She stood on the estate's rear terrace while the morning sky turned pale over the lake.
Massimo came outside.
"The car leaves in twenty minutes."
"I'm not going."
His face hardened.
"We are not doing this again."
"No. This time we're doing something different."
She stepped closer.
"You keep protecting me by removing me from the room."
"Yes."
"Stop."
"No."
"Massimo."
"Lorenzo killed my father."
"You don't know that yet."
"He helped."
"And if you chase him angry, you'll give him exactly what he wants."
His eyes flashed.
"You think I need advice on how to handle my family?"
"I think you need someone who isn't afraid of you."
That silenced him.
Sophie took a breath.
"You're not angry because I am in danger. You're terrified."
His face became unreadable.
She continued anyway.
"You're terrified that if I stay, you'll lose me."
He looked at her for a long time.
Then he said, "Yes."
One word.
No strategy.
No lie.
Sophie forgot how to breathe.
Massimo stepped closer.
"I knew you for less than an hour when I told my family you were with me. I knew you for less than a day when someone put your name on a threat. I have spent every hour since trying to convince myself this is temporary."
His hand lifted to her face.
"It stopped being temporary."
Sophie stared at him.
"What happens after three days?"
"I don't know."
"That's the first honest thing you've said about us."
He almost smiled.
Then the estate alarm began to scream.
Every light along the terrace flashed red.
Dante burst through the doors.
"Massimo."
The look on his face made Sophie's stomach drop.
"What?"
Dante's answer came in two words.
"Isabella's gone."
Later, Adriana found Sophie alone in the conservatory.
For a few seconds, neither woman spoke.
Rain tapped softly against the glass ceiling.
Adriana looked at the white roses lining the tables.
"I used to hate these."
"Roses?"
"White ones."
"Why?"
"My father sent them whenever he wanted me to forgive something he had no intention of changing."
Sophie looked at her.
"That's an expensive apology."
"It was never an apology."
Adriana touched one petal.
"When I was twenty-three, I wanted to move to Paris. I had been accepted into a graduate program in art history."
"What happened?"
"My father said the family needed me in Chicago."
"So you stayed."
"I thought staying made me loyal."
Her smile was tired.
"Then one year became two. Then every choice became a family decision. Where I lived. Who I dated. Which charities I represented. Eventually, who I would marry."
Sophie leaned against the table.
"Did Massimo know?"
"No. I don't think he ever asked whether I wanted the engagement because he assumed I had the same freedom he did."
Sophie considered that.
"He didn't have as much freedom as he thought."
Adriana looked at her.
"No. Men like Massimo mistake authority for freedom all the time."
Sophie laughed softly.
"I may quote you."
"Please don't. I would like to survive the week."
They stood quietly.
Then Adriana said, "He looks at you differently."
Sophie immediately felt defensive.
"This isn't—"
"I know what you agreed to."
"Do you?"
"Yes."
That surprised her.
Adriana continued.
"Massimo told me this morning. Not the details. Enough."
"Why?"
"Because he apologized."
Sophie stared.
"For humiliating you?"
"For assuming my silence meant consent."
That mattered more than Sophie expected.
Adriana looked toward the doors.
"He has never apologized to me before."
"Maybe he's changing."
"Maybe you made him uncomfortable enough to notice he needed to."
Sophie smiled.
"That sounds more accurate."
Adriana's expression softened.
"If this becomes real, don't disappear inside his world."
Sophie looked at her.
"Was that advice?"
"Warning."
"From the woman I supposedly stole him from?"
Adriana smiled.
"You didn't steal anything. You accidentally walked into a bedroom."
"According to your future family legend, I imagine that detail will become less accidental every year."
"Isabella will make sure of it."
They both laughed.
It was the first time Sophie understood that Adriana was not a rival.
May you like
She was another woman who had been assigned a role by men who believed strategy was the same thing as destiny.
That realization would matter when the family finally broke apart.
