Chapter 3 - Smoke Never Forgets
Sofia did not sleep that night.
She sat at the small kitchen table while Emma dreamed on the couch beneath a thin blanket. The envelope lay in front of her, its edges damp from the tears she had tried not to shed.
For eighteen months, she had convinced herself that Luca’s death had been an accident.
It had to be.
Because the alternative was too terrible.
The alternative meant Luca had been murdered.
The alternative meant someone still knew where she lived.
Someone still knew where Emma slept.
At six in the morning, Sofia arrived at the Moretti estate before the sun came up.
She moved through the halls silently, cleaning what was already clean.
Adrian found her in the dining room, polishing the same silver candleholder for nearly twenty minutes.
“Sofia.”
She jumped.
The candleholder slipped from her hands and struck the marble floor.
The sound echoed through the room.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
Adrian looked at her face.
“You’re frightened.”
“I’m tired.”
“You’re lying.”
Her eyes flashed.
For the first time since she had started working there, Sofia Romano looked directly at him without lowering her gaze.
“You hired me to clean your house,” she said. “Not to explain my life to you.”
Adrian accepted the blow.
“You’re right.”
Sofia looked surprised.
But he continued.
“Still, if someone is threatening you, I need to know.”
Her expression froze.
Adrian stepped closer, carefully, slowly.
“You received something last night.”
“How would you know that?”
“I have people watching the property.”
“Watching me?”
“Watching for danger.”
Sofia’s voice rose. “You had me followed?”
“No. I had the neighborhood watched after Marcus found evidence that Luca’s death may not have been an accident.”
Her face drained of color.
For several seconds, neither of them spoke.
Then Sofia whispered, “What evidence?”
Adrian told her only what he knew.
Luca’s connection to Vincent Barone.
The suspicious fire.
The envelopes.
The possibility that Luca had witnessed something connected to Adrian’s enemies.
Sofia listened without moving.
When Adrian finished, she gripped the edge of the table.
“Luca came home scared the week before he died,” she said. “He kept checking the windows. He told me if anything happened to him, I should take Emma and disappear.”
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
“Did he say why?”
“He said he had repaired a car for a man named Vincent. The man left a bag in the trunk. Luca saw something inside.”
“What?”
“Cash. Guns. Maybe documents. I don’t know. Luca said he wanted nothing to do with it.”
“And then?”
“He told Vincent to take his car somewhere else.”
Adrian felt anger move through him like ice.
Vincent Barone had always been careless.
Greedy.
Cruel.
But killing a mechanic to protect a secret was worse than Adrian had imagined.
Sofia looked at him, her eyes filling.
“Did your people kill my husband?”
The question hung between them.
Adrian did not answer quickly.
“No,” he said at last. “Not on my order. But if someone connected to me did this, I will find them.”
Sofia laughed once, bitterly.
“And what does that mean? You’ll make them disappear?”
“It means they will face what they did.”
She looked away.
“You don’t get to decide what justice looks like.”
“No,” Adrian said. “But I can make sure you survive long enough to see it.”
That evening, Adrian ordered Sofia and Emma moved into a guest suite on the estate.
Sofia refused.
“I won’t be trapped in your house.”
“You won’t be trapped,” he said. “You’ll be protected.”
“Protection from you?”
The words hit him harder than they should have.
Before he could answer, Charles entered the room with his face tight.
“Mr. Moretti,” he said. “There’s been an incident.”
Marcus was already waiting in the security office.
On the monitor was footage from outside Sofia’s apartment building.
A black SUV had pulled up at 2:17 p.m.
Two men had entered.
They left eight minutes later.
Sofia’s apartment door had been kicked in.
Her belongings had been thrown across the floor.
The photograph of Luca had been smashed.
And written across the wall in red paint were the words:
THE GIRL REMEMBERS.
Sofia stared at the screen.
Emma stood beside her, confused and scared.
“Mommy?” she asked. “Why are those bad men in our house?”
Sofia dropped to her knees and pulled her daughter close.
Adrian stood behind them, unable to move.
Then Emma looked over Sofia’s shoulder and saw him.
“Mr. Moretti,” she whispered. “Can Daisy sleep here tonight?”
Adrian’s voice nearly broke.
“Yes, sweetheart.”
He looked at Marcus.
“Lock the estate down.”
Marcus nodded.
“And find Vincent Barone.”
Adrian’s eyes darkened.
May you like
“Find him before he finds them.”
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